Economic performance assessment and monitoring in LP-DMC type controller applications

One of the main reported problems in petrochemical applications of Linear Programming-Dynamic Matrix Control (LP-DMC) type controllers is their global performance assessment. Since the stationary optimization and dynamic control blocks have not a transparent link between them, it is not easy to find appropriate references to evaluate the overall performance, and more important, to clearly determine the causes of an eventual loss of performance. In this work, the whole LP-DMC problem is analyzed and an off-line underlying optimization problem is defined, whose solution is used as a benchmark for the global closed-loop behaviors study. Based on this idea three global indicators, which evaluate and diagnose poor controller performance, are proposed. The indicators were successfully tested in two case studies: an integrating system and the well-known Shell heavy oil fractionator.     

A decision support model for identification and prioritization of key performance indicators in the logistics industry

Performance measurement of logistics companies is based upon various performance indicators. Yet, in the logistics industry, there are several vaguenesses, such as deciding on key indicators and determining interrelationships between performance indicators. In order to resolve these vaguenesses, this paper first presents the stakeholder-informed Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model, by incorporating financial (e.g. cost) and non-financial (e.g. social media) performance indicators, with a comprehensive approach as a response to the major shortcomings of the generic BSC regarding the negligence of different stakeholders. Subsequently, since the indicators are not independent of each other, a robust multi-criteria decision making technique, the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method is implemented to analyze the interrelationships. The integration of these two techniques provides a novel way to evaluate logistics performance indicators from logisticians' perspective. This is a matter that has not been addressed in the logistics industry to date, and as such remains a gap that needs to be investigated. Therefore, the proposed model identifies key performance indicators as well as various stakeholders in the logistics industry, and analyzes the interrelationships among the indicators by using the ANP. Consequently, the results show that educated employee (15.61%) is the most important indicator for the competitiveness of logistics companies.     

An improved MULTIMOORA method with combined weights and its application in assessing the innovative ability of universities

Innovative ability plays a critical role in the sustainable development of universities. Although the assessment of universities' innovative ability is a significant undertaking, it is difficult work. This challenge can be addressed as a typical multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problem, in which multiple attributes should be considered with different levels of importance. This paper aims to propose an integrated MADM method to solve this issue. To do so, we first introduce the least square method with the hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set to determine the subjective attribute weights. Considering that the selected attributes are not always in conflict with each other due to the complexity of objective things, we further present a correlation coefficient‐based method to calculate another kind of attribute weight. The final weights are the combined form of these two types of attribute weights. In addition, we enhance the robust ranking method, MULTIMOORA, with the Borda rule to calculate the utility values of universities and derive their rankings. Finally, after establishing an index system, the assessment of the innovative ability of 26 world‐class construction universities in China is conducted by using the proposed method. The advantages and disadvantages of the assessed universities are analysed.     

Interrogating the effect of environmental factors on e-commerce institutionalization in Tanzania: a test and validation of small and medium enterprise claims

The purpose of this study is to interrogate the claims made by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tanzania regarding the environmental factors that negatively affect their institutionalization of e-commerce. SMEs made claims that there was a lack of institutional readiness for e-commerce in Tanzania, as well as inadequate market forces readiness, supporting industry readiness, and socio-cultural readiness. A content analysis approach was used to interrogate institutional policy documents to determine the frequency of use of specific arguments that either support or negate the SMEs’ claims. The theory of communicative action was used as a framework to analyze the truthfulness, sincerity, clarity, and legitimacy of the claims made. The findings from the content analysis show that the Tanzanian Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) policy and SME policy pay scant attention to e-commerce readiness factors. The validity claim analysis did not reveal distorted communications by SMEs, but corroborated their claims that indeed environmental factors were not conducive to the institutionalization of e-commerce in Tanzania. These findings call for a national-level reassessment of e-commerce policies in Tanzania.     

Ethical decision-making in the Internet context: Development and test of an initial model based on moral philosophy

This paper proposes an ethical decision-making model in the Internet context based on moral theories and then empirically tests the model. The model posits that five moral philosophy variables—justice, relativism, egoism, deontology, and utilitarianism—affect ethical judgment; ethical judgment, in turn, affects behavioral intentions. To empirically test the model, four scenarios, real-life situations containing an ethical dilemma on the Internet, were developed and empirically analyzed by structural equation modeling with data from 111 university students.The results showed the five moral philosophy variables affected ethical judgment, each having different effects according to the particular ethical situation. Also, justice, utilitarianism, and ethical judgment were found to influence behavioral intentions in ethical dilemma situations on the Internet.     

An extension of Trust and TAM model with TPB in the initial adoption of on-line tax: An empirical study

While on-line tax is considered as a special type of e-service, the adoption rate of this service in Taiwan is still relatively low. The initial adoption of on-line tax is the important driving force to further influence the use and continued use of this service. The model of Trust and technology acceptance model (TAM) in Gefen et al. (2003a, MIS Quarterly 27(1), 51–90) has been well studied in on-line shopping and showed that understanding both the Internet technology and trust issue is important in determining behavioral intention to use. Besides, the diffusion of on-line tax could also be influenced by the potential antecedents such as individuals, organizational members, and social system while the issue for innovative technology is well discussed in Rogers (1995, The Diffusion of Innovation, fourth ed. Free Press, New York). Theory of planned behavior (TPB) is the model widely used to discuss the effect of these antecedents in behavioral intention. An extension of Trust and TAM model with TPB would be in more comprehensive manner to understand behavioral intention to use on-line tax. Furthermore, a large sample survey is used to empirically examine this framework.     

Biodiversity in rubber agroforests,carbon emissions,and rural livelihoods: An agent-based model of land-use dynamics in lowland Sumatra

Rubber agroforests in the mostly deforested lowlands of Sumatra, Indonesia are threatened by conversion into monoculture rubber or oil palm plantations. We applied an agent-based model to explore the potential effectiveness of a payment for ecosystem services (PES) design through a biodiversity rich rubber eco-certification scheme. We integrated conditionality, where compliance with biodiversity performance indicators is prerequisite for awarding incentives. We compared a PES policy scenario to ‘business-as-usual’ and ‘subsidized land use change’ scenarios to explore potential trade-offs between ecosystem services delivery and rural income. Results indicated that a rubber agroforest eco-certification scheme could reduce carbon emissions and species loss better than alternative scenarios. However, the suggested premiums were too low to compete with income from other land uses. Nevertheless, integrating our understanding of household agent behavior through a spatially explicit and agent-specific assessment of the trade-offs can help refine the design of conservation initiatives such as PES.     

Drivers of ICT acceptance and implementation in micro-firms in the estate agent sector: influence on organizational performance

From the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study aims to identify the drivers of successful implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in micro-firms and their impact on organizational performance. To this end, a quantitative study was undertaken, where the data-collecting instrument was an online questionnaire administered to a sample of micro-firms belonging to the Portuguese estate agent sector. Based on the results obtained from 102 valid responses, among the drivers identified, internal factors, more precisely, organizational aspects were found to allow successful implementation of ICT in the firms studied here and to be the ones with the greatest influence on their organizational performance. However, external factors, such as external information technology consultants and networking, did not show a statistically significant influence on organizational performance in estate agent micro-firms. The study also presents some implications for theory and practice in this field of research.     

IT centrality,IT management model,and contribution of the IT function to organizational performance: A study in Canadian hospitals

The characterization of the IT function in organizations represents a central topic of investigation in the information systems field. The main purpose of this study was to predict the contribution of the IT function to organizational performance by focusing on the centrality of IT and the IT management profile as primary determinants. A cross-sectional survey of CIOs working in Canadian hospitals reveals that IT centrality positively influences the strategic orientation of the IT management model. In turn, the stronger the strategic orientation of the IT management model in place, the greater is the IT function’s contribution to organizational performance.     

The performance of foliage mass and crown radius models in forming the input of a forest reflectance model: A test on forest growth sample plots and Landsat 7 ETM+ images

Several published foliage mass and crown radius regression models were tested on the preparation of the input for the reflectance model of Kuusk and Nilson [Kuusk, A. and Nilson, T. (2000), A directional multispectral forest reflectance model. Remote Sensing of Environment, 72(2):244–252.] for 246 forest growth sample plots in Estonia. In each test, foliage mass and crown radius for trees in the sample plots were predicted with a particular pair of allometric regression models. The forest reflectance model was then run using the estimated foliage mass and crown radius values. Reflectance factors were simulated and compared with the reflectance values obtained from three atmospherically corrected Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) scenes. The statistics of linear regression between the simulated and measured reflectance factors were used to assess the performance of foliage and crown radius models. The hypothesis was that the best allometric regression models should provide the best fit in reflectance. The strongest correlation between the simulated and measured reflectance factors was found in the short-wave infrared band (ETM + 5) for all the images. The highest R² = 0.71 was observed in Picea abies dominated stands. No excellent combination of foliage mass and crown radius functions was found, but the ranking based on determination coefficients showed that some linear crown radius models are not applicable to our data. Processing of raster images, reflectance measurement for small sample plots, usage of tree-species-specific fixed parameters (specific leaf area, etc.), and the ignored influence of phenology introduced additional variation into the relationships between simulated and measured reflectance factors. Further studies are needed, but these preliminary results demonstrate that the proposed method could serve as an effective way of testing the performance of foliage mass and canopy cover regressions.     

Investigating the effects of experience on human performance in an object-tracking task: a case study of manual rendezvous and docking

Human involvement with the manual control of object-tracking tasks, such as manual rendezvous and docking, can enhance the flexibility of the task. The operator is required to make decisions as precisely as possible when a chase vehicle is approaching the target vehicle. As the level of mental workload is intensively increased, the operator's perception and decision-making with tracking error-correcting purposes should be properly identified in multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs). The two experimental studies in this paper were conducted for object-based selective attention in six DOFs and object-pointing manipulation under the zero resistance circumstance, which were correlated with human performance when a chaser approached a target spacecraft; the effects of experience level on the two important factors are presented herein. The experimental results demonstrated that some performance details between the novice and experienced groups were different in terms of the attentional priority of multiple DOFs and lateral/vertical movement for deviation error correction, which could provide a certain reference for a cognitive–behavioural model and assist the operator in obtaining proper or even optimal decision-making or operating instructions to improve their adaptation to selective attention and object-pointing manipulation, for preventing accidental manipulation and performance degradation.     

The effects of warnings and an educational brochure on computer working posture: a test of the C-HIP model in the context of RSI-relevant behaviour

This study tested whether warnings can result in a better working posture with respect to RSI prevention compared with an educational brochure. By using a warning, the information provision on how to prevent RSI can be shorter and only interrupts with the task at hand for a short time. Five conditions were created to compare the effects on position adjustments of a warning displayed on the computer screen, a warning hanging on the wall, an educational brochure, a neutral interruption on the computer screen, and no intervention. Systematic observations of respondents' working postures showed that the computer warning led to significantly more correct position adjustments than the educational brochure and the two control situations, whereas the wall warning condition did not differ significantly from all other conditions. Questionnaires were used to study whether the number of position adjustments in the conditions could be explained by Wogalter's communication-human information processing (C-HIP) model. The questionnaire data suggest that the effect of the computer warning is caused by heightened attention for this type of intervention. The other stages of the C-HIP model—knowledge, attitude change, and motivation—might not be necessary in this situation in the explanation of behavioural changes. The conclusion is that warnings may be able to successfully replace educational brochures to produce behavioural changes.