An e-government framework for assessing readiness for public sector e-procurement in a lower-middle income country

ABSTRACT

Governments globally are leveraging information and communication technology (ICT) growth towards improving the quality of public procurement services for socio-economic development. However, the extent of its application differs across nations. Notwithstanding the extant theoretical and empirical literature on IT for development, knowledge on how to assess readiness for adopting a full e-procurement system in the public sector of lower and lower-middle income countries (LMICs) begs for understanding. With the narrative of Ghana, we address this gap by drawing on the institutional and economic theory and the United Nations E-Government Development Index towards a holistic framework beyond the dyad of linear website functionalities and internet focus of prior e-government adoption models. Elite interviews gathered from multiple cases from Ghana’s public sector reveals the key readiness determinants for a full public sector e-procurement system. This study has significant implications for shaping the process-oriented management of government e-procurement projects towards socio-economic development in LMICs amid their complex institutional and socio-technical environments.     

2020年国内外宏观经济形势分析及预判

2020年,预计全球贸易进展局势出现缓和,世界经济增长小幅回升至2.6%左右,主要经济体面临的贸易政策、货币政策和地缘政治局势等不确定性因素仍较多,世界经济增长面临的下行风险仍较大。2019年中国经济总体平稳,GDP增长6.1%。2020年我国经济将继续保持增长稳健、结构优化、动能转换的发展态势,预计将实现6.0%的增长。     

Innovations and productivity: the shift during the 2008 crisis

This paper investigates how the recent crisis of 2008 changed relations between innovation and firm performance in Western Europe. We apply a structural framework of CDM modelling, which incorporates different stages of the knowledge creation process and takes into account the complex nature of innovations. The study is based on a balanced panel data of 420 listed manufacturing firms from the U.K., Germany and France. All the information is gathered from common sources, thereby reducing subjectivity, a typical problem in the field. We found, the crisis resulted in appreciable changes in the model. The most important evidence is enhancement of the role of firm resources in the post-recession period. We also reveal larger barriers for innovations, increased uncertainty and lower state dependence in R&D engagement, product creation and economic performance. These results could indicate the ‘cleaning effect’ of the crisis, which has worsened the business environment and enhanced competition.     

Do African Economies Grow Similarly?

Abstract

This paper examines economic growth in 52 African countries for 1961–2016 and seeks to find if there is common growth. As all African countries have their particular features, concerning climate, harvest, industry, size, politics, and infrastructure, and more, it seems best to rely on a non-parametric method. Dynamic Time Warping is such a convenient method, also as it allows leads and lags across countries to vary over time, and as it can easily be incorporated into a clustering technique. Five clusters are found, two of which concern Equatorial Guinea and Botswana, and the three other clusters have common growth rates of about 0, 2 and 4 over more than five decades.     

大红山铜矿285中段连续开采中胶结矿柱经济分析

大红山铜矿285中段铜铁合采区原矿品位较低,采用胶结充填体置换矿柱开采可能亏损,矿山未建立胶结充填体置换矿柱开采的利润测算方法。利用285中段铜铁合采区标准矿块测算胶结矿柱开采的直接成本,结合中段建设费用分摊和销售费用,建立胶结矿柱开采的利润测算方法,最终完成285中段胶结矿柱开采的利润测算,为胶结矿柱开采提供指导依据。     

Long-term performance analysis of chemical filters in clean rooms based on a prediction model

Chemical filters are the most important devices for removing gas-phase pollutants in clean rooms. However, the testing concentration of chemical filters is too high for reflecting their performance in a real clean room environment. This study tested the adsorption performance of chemical filters in the two most commonly used shapes at different concentrations. Then, the Langmuir equation and Wheeler-Jonas kinetic equation were combined to establish an adsorption performance prediction model of chemical filters under actual conditions. The predicted values of the model were in good agreement with the experimental results, which indicated the high accuracy of the prediction model. The model does not need to test the microscopic parameters of the adsorbent and can maintain high accuracy at low concentrations. A fast method for calculating the service life of chemical filters was also presented. Based on this model, the total cost of using a chemical filter with a high carbon content in microelectronic clean rooms could be decreased by 45% due to decreasing the number of filter replacements over 3 months. So a chemical filter with a high carbon content should be preferred over a filter with low resistance in microelectronic clean rooms.     

“流空间”视角下的城市空间网络结构研究——以成渝双城经济圈为例

推动区域协调发展已经成为构建高质量发展国土空间布局的客观需要和解决发展不平衡问题的内在需求，以城市群为核心的经济圈建设成为驱动高质量发展的重要空间层级。为实现成渝双城经济圈的区域一体化及区域多层级协调发展，将流动的生产资源与城市空间结构相结合，基于人流、信息流、技术流、经济流四大流动资源，采用社会网络分析方法，分别从点、线、面3个维度对成渝双城经济圈空间网络结构特征进行分析。研究表明：经济圈内部呈现以成都、重庆为双核心的结构，区域间相互作用，城市中心性整体表现出内部优于外部的空间特征，核心城市对外围城市未充分发挥带动作用；圈内城市链接多表现出高度不对称性，链接对称地区主要集中在成渝中轴地区，城市间的联系有待加强，经济圈外围城市与外界联系较少；区域内部小团体现象明显，团体间联系密度存在差异，整体来看城市集群格局尚未形成，跨省域、跨地区的联系不够，成渝双城经济圈主要是西侧地区围绕成都发展。最后，为构建成渝经济圈一体化及区域多层级协调发展的空间格局，建议突破行政区域限制，构建多领域的跨区域共享协作通道；加强中部地区发展动力，提高外围城市的资源吸收能力；注重经济圈内城市交通建设及信息融合发展，突出核心城市的引领作用和外溢属性，促进城市间技术交流与经济融合。     

Graduate Student Literature Review: Considerations for nutritional grouping in dairy farms

Each cow in a group has different nutritional requirements even if the group is formed by cows of similar age, number of lactations, and lactation stage. Common dairy farm management setup does not support formulating a diet that accurately matches individual nutritional requirements for each cow; therefore, a proportion of cows in the group will be overfed and another proportion underfed. Overfeeding and underfeeding cows increases the risk of metabolic diseases, decreases milk production, and increases nutrient waste. Consequently, profitability of dairy farms and the environment are negatively affected. Nutritional grouping is a management strategy that aims to allocate lactating cows homogeneously according to their nutritional requirements. Groups of cows with more uniform nutritional requirements facilitates the formulation of more accurate diets for the group. Current availability of large data streams on dairy farms facilitates the design of algorithms to implement nutritional grouping. Our review summarizes important factors to consider when grouping cows, describes nutritional grouping approaches, and summarizes benefits of implementing nutritional grouping in dairy farms.     

经济全球化与我国资源型城市产业结构转化研究——以辽宁省盘锦市为例

世界经济的全球化推动着地区产业结构的转化 ,由此 ,为我国资源型城市和地区如何发展经济 ,如何参与竞争并保持自身的可持续发展能力提出了一个严峻的课题。本文在理论阐述的基础上 ,以辽宁省盘锦市为例 ,从产业结构的基本特征、面临的问题以及如何进行产业结构调整与转化等方面进行了分析     

矿业城市循环经济发展模式

当前,矿业城市面临着支柱产业单一,竞争能力不强的突出矛盾。在可持续发展的推动下,循环经济成为新的经济运行模式。矿业城市的循环经济发展模式在解决矿业城市发展的问题上无疑成为一种非常好的思路。本文就这一问题进行了探讨。