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Article
Publication date: 19 October 2010

K.P. Anagnostopoulos, P.D. Chatzoglou and S. Katsavounis

The purpose of this paper is to present a procedure for finding the efficient frontier, i.e. a non‐decreasing curve representing the set of Pareto‐optimal or non‐dominated…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a procedure for finding the efficient frontier, i.e. a non‐decreasing curve representing the set of Pareto‐optimal or non‐dominated portfolios, when the standard Markowitz' classical mean‐variance model is enriched with additional constraints.

Design/methodology/approach

The mean‐variance portfolio optimization model is extended to include integer constraints that limit a portfolio to have a specified number of assets, and to impose limits on the proportion of the portfolio held in a given asset. Optimization‐based procedures run into difficulties in this framework and this motivates the investigation of heuristic algorithms to find acceptable solutions.

Findings

The problem is solved by a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP), enhanced by a learning mechanism and a bias function for determining the next element to be introduced in the solution.

Originality/value

This is believed to be the first time, a GRASP for finding the efficient frontier for this class of portfolio selection problems is used.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 36 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

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Article
Publication date: 20 June 2016

Maurizio Massaro, John Dumay and James Guthrie

The purpose of this paper is to present a method for a structured literature review (SLR). An SLR is a method for examining a corpus of scholarly literature, to develop insights…

14132

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a method for a structured literature review (SLR). An SLR is a method for examining a corpus of scholarly literature, to develop insights, critical reflections, future research paths and research questions. SLRs are common in scientific disciplines dominated by quantitative approaches, but they can be adapted in accounting studies since quantitative and qualitative approaches are commonly accepted.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review, as a piece of academic writing, must have a logical, planned structure. The authors also argue it requires tests based on qualitative and quantitative methods. Therefore, the authors describe ten steps for developing an SLR.

Findings

The SLR method is a way that scholars can stand “on the shoulders of giants” and provide insightful and impactful research that is different to the traditional authorship approaches to literature reviews.

Research limitations/implications

Traditional literature reviews can have varied results because of a lack of rigour. SLRs use a process that, through a set of rules, potentially offers less bias and more transparency of the execution and measures and techniques of validation and reliability.

Practical implications

SLRs provide an approach that can help academics to discover under-investigated topics and methods, nurturing, therefore, the development of new knowledge areas and research approaches.

Originality/value

The paper presents accounting researchers with an opportunity to develop insightful and publishable studies, and also serves as a basis for developing future research agendas in the accounting field. The authors advocate the SLR method especially to higher degree research students and emerging scholars as a way of potentially developing robust and defensible research agendas and questions.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 29 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

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Article
Publication date: 9 May 2023

Anurag Mishra, Pankaj Dutta and Naveen Gottipalli

The supply chain (SC) of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in India witnessed a significant change soon after introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST). With the…

903

Abstract

Purpose

The supply chain (SC) of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in India witnessed a significant change soon after introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST). With the initiation of this tax, companies started moving from individual state-wise warehouses to consolidation warehouses model to save costs. This paper proposes a model that frames a mathematical formulation to optimize the distribution network in the downstream SC by considering the complexities of multi-product lines, multi-transport modes and consolidated warehouses.

Design/methodology/approach

The model is designed as mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), and an algorithm is developed that works on the feedback loop mechanism. It optimizes the transportation and warehouses rental costs simultaneously with impact analysis.

Findings

Total cost is primarily influenced by the critical factor transportation price rather than the warehouse rent. The choice of warehouses at prime locations was a trade-off between a lower distribution cost and higher rent tariffs.

Research limitations/implications

The study enables FMCG firms to plan their downstream SC efficiently and to be in line with the recent trend of consolidation of warehouses. The study will help SC managers solve complexities such as multi-product categories, truck selection and consolidation warehouse selection problems and find the optimum value for each.

Originality/value

The issues addressed in the proposed work are transporting products with different sizes and weights, selecting consolidated warehouses, selecting suitable vehicles for transportation and optimizing distance in the distribution network by considering consolidated warehouses.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. 73 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

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Article
Publication date: 16 October 2024

Narimene Dakiche, Karima Benatchba, Fatima Benbouzid-Si Tayeb, Yahya Slimani and Mehdi Anis Brahmi

This paper aims to introduce a novel modularity-based framework, Com_Tracker, designed to detect and track community structures in dynamic social networks without recomputing them…

19

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to introduce a novel modularity-based framework, Com_Tracker, designed to detect and track community structures in dynamic social networks without recomputing them from scratch at each snapshot. Despite extensive research in this area, existing approaches either require repetitive computations or fail to capture key community behavioral events, both of which limit the ability to generate timely and actionable insights. Efficiently tracking community structures is crucial for real-time decision-making in rapidly evolving networks, while capturing behavioral events is necessary for understanding deeper community dynamics. This study addresses these limitations by proposing a more efficient and adaptive solution. It aims to answer the following questions: How can we efficiently track community structures without recomputation? How can we detect significant community events over time?

Design/methodology/approach

Com_Tracker models dynamic social networks as a sequence of snapshots. First, it detects the community structure of the initial snapshot using a static community detection algorithm. Then, for each subsequent time step, Com_Tracker updates the community structure based on the previous snapshot, allowing it to track communities and detect their changes over time. The locus-based adjacency encoding scheme is adopted, and Pearson’s correlation guides the construction of neighboring solutions.

Findings

Experiments conducted on various networks demonstrate that Com_Tracker effectively detects community structures and tracks their evolution in dynamic social networks. The results highlight its potential for real-time tracking and provide promising performance outcomes.

Practical implications

Com_Tracker offers valuable insights into community evolution, helping practitioners across fields such as resource management, public security, marketing and public health. By understanding how communities evolve, decision-makers can better allocate resources, enhance targeted strategies and predict future community behaviors, improving overall responsiveness to changes in network dynamics.

Originality/value

Com_Tracker addresses critical gaps in existing research by combining the strengths of modularity maximization with efficient tracking of community changes. Unlike previous methods that either recompute structures or fail to capture behavioral events, Com_Tracker provides an incremental, adaptive framework capable of detecting both community evolution and behavioral changes, enhancing real-world applicability in dynamic environments.

Details

Journal of Systems and Information Technology, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1328-7265

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Article
Publication date: 11 January 2016

Yu-Ting Tai, Chia-Hui Huang and Shun-Chieh Chuang

In today’s complicated and competitive business environment, companies commonly use enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to integrate management information and enhance…

1461

Abstract

Purpose

In today’s complicated and competitive business environment, companies commonly use enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to integrate management information and enhance efficiency. In recent years, due to the development of cloud computing and portable devices, a new mobility era is starting. The popularity of smartphones and tablet computers has changed the behavior of mobile-phone users and enhanced the rapid development of mobile commerce. ERP companies have discovered this trend and want to provide more convenient services and develop more integrated functions for their ERP systems in which practitioners can operate and access company information through various mobile devices anywhere, anytime. However, mobile ERP is still in the development stage. On the whole there has been relatively little research into the framework and system implementation of mobile ERP until recently. The purpose of this paper is to propose a mobile ERP framework for the sales function in an ERP system. The authors also design a mobile type sales application based on an android-based mobile device. In addition, the authors provide sale practitioners and supervisors with a more convenient and rapider service interface in which they can quickly respond to customers’ needs.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a mobile ERP framework taking into account the requirements of sales and distribution modules. The proposed framework can directly access the ERP system and perform more efficiently than a web service-based framework since middleware services are not involved.

Findings

For the purposes of demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed mobile ERP system, the authors examine three scenarios which are commonly used in world-wide integrated circuit (IC) design companies. In this kind of company, salespersons travel to various cities and collect sales information. The three various scenarios include: (A) sales order creation; (B) order status inquiry; (C) order modification. The results of simulation show that the mobile ERP system indeed enhances the efficiency of processing operations in sales and distribution modules, particularly for salespersons visiting outside offices and traveling world-wide.

Research limitations/implications

The authors investigate and propose a mobile ERP framework for a world-wide ERP system company, SAP, which is a research limitation in the paper, since SAP ERP system is not installed for all companies. In addition, from this investigation, two possible concerns might be useful in further research. The first involves other modules may be included in the proposed mobile ERP framework. The second is the need to integrate other useful analysis systems, such as business intelligence, for a more complete mobile ERP system.

Practical implications

To demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed mobile ERP system, three various scenarios which are commonly used in world-wide IC design companies are considered. In addition, the comparisons of the typical procedures in terms of average processing time for existing ERP systems and the proposed mobile ERP system are provided. The simulation times finding show that the mobile ERP system indeed enhances the efficiency of processing operations in sales and distribution modules, particularly for the salespersons visiting outside offices and traveling world-wide.

Social implications

The popularity of smartphones and tablet computers has changed the behavior of mobile-phone users and enhanced the rapid development of mobile commerce. Mobile ERP systems can provide more up-to-date information than typical ERP systems involving order-tracking, real-time stock quantity checking, and sales order creations since salespersons still can access or update their collected information wherever they are world-wide. The contributions of this paper have a great impact on behavior changes of mobile-phone users. It can enhance efficiency and quality of life for users.

Originality/value

In the paper, the authors propose a mobile ERP framework for the sales function which can provide sale practitioners and supervisors a more convenient and rapider service interface in which they can quickly respond to customers’ needs. The proposed framework of mobile ERP perform more efficiently than typical ERP systems and a web service-based framework since middleware services are not involved.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 45 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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Article
Publication date: 18 October 2021

Bolong He, Snezana Mitrovic-Minic, Len Garis, Pierre Robinson and Tamon Stephen

The Surrey (British Columbia, Canada) fire department has an annual cycle for hiring full-time firefighters. This paper optimizes the timing of the annual hiring period. A key…

71

Abstract

Purpose

The Surrey (British Columbia, Canada) fire department has an annual cycle for hiring full-time firefighters. This paper optimizes the timing of the annual hiring period. A key issue is handling workplace absences, which can be covered by overtime cost or full-time hires.

Design/methodology/approach

Short-term and long-term absences patterns are analyzed according to season and age cohorts of the firefighters. These are then used in both an explanatory and time series model to predict future absences. The hiring schedule is optimized based on these predictions and additional constraints.

Findings

The current practice fares well in the analysis. For the time period studied, moving to earlier hiring dates appears beneficial. This analysis is robust with respect to various assumptions.

Originality/value

This is a case study where analytic techniques and machine learning are applied to an organizational practice that is not commonly analyzed. In this case, the previous method was not much worse than the optimized solution. The techniques used are quite general and can be applied to various organizational decision problems.

Details

International Journal of Emergency Services, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2047-0894

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Article
Publication date: 17 January 2023

Lydia Garmon-Jones, Paul Hanna and Mary John

Concerns have been raised regarding the mental health of firefighters. In response to this, existing literature reviews have highlighted the significant role of trauma in…

272

Abstract

Purpose

Concerns have been raised regarding the mental health of firefighters. In response to this, existing literature reviews have highlighted the significant role of trauma in influencing mental health and the experience of post-traumatic stress within firefighters.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper builds on the existing reviews and makes an original contribution to knowledge by systematically reviewing research exploring additional factors that contribute to poor mental health in firefighters.

Findings

This review finds that factors such as sleep, occupational stress, length of service, coping style and social support all influence negative mental health within firefighters. However, this paper also suggests there are challenges to distinguishing the nature of these relationships, due to the possible bidirectional nature of the relationships and study limitations.

Originality/value

Finally, we conclude by suggesting a clear need for further research to explore the biological, psychological and social factors influencing mental health outcomes in firefighters and the direction of these relationships, in order to inform effective intervention and support.

Details

International Journal of Emergency Services, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2047-0894

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