From design to operations: a process management life-cycle performance measurement system for Public-Private Partnerships

Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) have become a critical vehicle for delivering infrastructure worldwide. Yet, the use of such a procurement strategy has received considerable criticism, as they have been prone to experiencing time/cost overruns and during their operation poorly managed. A key issue contributing to the poor performance of PPPs is the paucity of an effective and comprehensive performance measurement system. There has been a tendency for the performance of PPPs to be measured based on their ex-post criteria of time, cost and quality. Such criteria do not accommodate the complexities and lifecycle of an asset. In addressing this problem, the methodology of sequential triangulation is used to develop and examine the effectiveness of a ‘Process Management Life Cycle Performance Measurement System’. The research provides public authorities and private-sector entities embarking on PPPs with a robust mechanism to effectively measure, control and manage their projects’ life cycle performances, ensuring the assets are ‘future proofed’.     

An Optimization‐Based Framework for the Identification of Vulnerabilities in Electric Power Grids Exposed to Natural Hazards

This article proposes a novel mathematical optimization framework for the identification of the vulnerabilities of electric power infrastructure systems (which is a paramount example of critical infrastructure) due to natural hazards. In this framework, the potential impacts of a specific natural hazard on an infrastructure are first evaluated in terms of failure and recovery probabilities of system components. Then, these are fed into a bi‐level attacker–defender interdiction model to determine the critical components whose failures lead to the largest system functionality loss. The proposed framework bridges the gap between the difficulties of accurately predicting the hazard information in classical probability‐based analyses and the over conservatism of the pure attacker–defender interdiction models. Mathematically, the proposed model configures a bi‐level max‐min mixed integer linear programming (MILP) that is challenging to solve. For its solution, the problem is casted into an equivalent one‐level MILP that can be solved by efficient global solvers. The approach is applied to a case study concerning the vulnerability identification of the georeferenced RTS24 test system under simulated wind storms. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework for identifying critical locations under multiple hazard events and, thus, for providing a useful tool to help decisionmakers in making more‐informed prehazard preparation decisions.     

社交网络个体活跃行为的大数据分析：从网络外部性的视角

用户是社交网络平台的基石，用户的活跃行为为平台创造内容、带来价值，因而用户活跃度一直是社交网络平台的关注重点。已有研究仅关注用户是否存在持续使用意向或行为，将持续使用行为定义为二元变量，未对持续使用行为细分，忽略了对用户活跃行为的研究。此外，社交网络中用户活跃行为之间有着不可忽视的相互影响，而受制于用户的关系网络数据难以获取，少有研究从该角度对社交网络中的用户行为进行研究。 将持续使用行为进一步细分为个体活跃和沉默行为，从网络外部性视角探讨同伴活跃行为对焦点个体活跃行为的影响以及个体网络规模与活跃行为的关系，并进一步探讨个体间关系强度和个体特征的调节作用。以超过百万用户的真实关系网络、个体特征信息和使用行为数据进行实证分析，通过Tobit模型验证上述关系。 研究结果表明，同伴活跃度和个体网络规模对个体活跃度有显著的正向作用，同时关系强度具有正向调节作用；个体特征在同伴活跃度与个体活跃度之间起调节作用，具体来说，女性用户和年轻用户受同伴活跃行为的影响更强。 从网络外部性的角度探讨用户活跃行为的影响因素，拓展了关于在线社交网络用户持续使用行为的研究和网络外部性测量方式，关注不同节点对于网络外部性贡献的差异性，对今后网络外部性的研究有一定的借鉴意义。基于中国数百万真实用户的数据集，结果更具普适性，同时反映出中国在线社交网络中用户的行为特征，可为今后的研究者提供参考。研究结果可以帮助社交网络平台的管理者更加了解用户活跃度的影响机理以及用户行为之间的内在联系，从而能以更科学合理的方式激发用户活跃度，保持社交网络平台的持续运营。     

Total completion time minimization in online hierarchical scheduling of unit-size jobs

This paper investigates an online hierarchical scheduling problem on m parallel identical machines. Our goal is to minimize the total completion time of all jobs. Each job has a unit processing time and a hierarchy. The job with a lower hierarchy can only be processed on the first machine and the job with a higher hierarchy can be processed on any one of m machines. We first show that the lower bound of this problem is at least \(1+\min \{\frac{1}{m}, \max \{\frac{2}{\lceil x\rceil +\frac{x}{\lceil x\rceil }+3}, \frac{2}{\lfloor x\rfloor +\frac{x}{\lfloor x\rfloor }+3}\}\), where \(x=\sqrt{2m+4}\). We then present a greedy algorithm with tight competitive ratio of \(1+\frac{2(m-1)}{m(\sqrt{4m-3}+1)}\). The competitive ratio is obtained in a way of analyzing the structure of the instance in the worst case, which is different from the most common method of competitive analysis. In particular, when \(m=2\), we propose an optimal online algorithm with competitive ratio of \(16\) \(/\) \(13\), which complements the previous result which provided an asymptotically optimal algorithm with competitive ratio of 1.1573 for the case where the number of jobs n is infinite, i.e., \(n\rightarrow \infty \).     

一种新的金融动态横截面估计方法——基于中国股票市场条件定价模型评估的应用与扩展

大多数资产定价模型常常用静态横截面回归(the static cross-sectional regression)进行定价表现评估,从而投资组合回报率的时间变化性并不能被时变的风险承载或者(和)时变的风险溢价所解释.本文从经济学的角度,运用一种新的金融动态横截面回归(the dynamic cross-sectional regression),首次考察了基于中国股票市场和美国股票市场的条件资产定价模型的定价表现:股票市场投资组合回报率的时变性是否能被时变的风险溢价所解释.本文发现,短期收益反转和流通市值加权市场换手率为条件变量的条件资本资产定价模型和基于消费的条件资本资产定价模型,能更好的解释中国股票投资组合的回报时变性,其时变性主要来自于时变的风险溢价.另外,本文发现一些拥有持续(persistence)和缓慢变化(slow-moving)特性的条件变量更能够解释横截面投资组合的时变回报.     

Optimal RSUs deployment with delay bound along highways in VANET

In order to broadcast an alert message from the accident site to the control center as soon as possible, the roadside units (RSUs) act as the critical component in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). It is not possible to make a pervasive RSU deployment due to the huge cost and market requirement. Hence, how to deploy a minimum number of RSUs in a given region becomes a challenge problem. In this paper, we present an analysis for the total delay of broadcasting alert messages in VANETs along highways. Based on the analysis, the relationship between optimal number of RSUs with the highway distance is given. Moreover, the experiment results verifies the delay analysis and the optimization of RSUs deployment.     

Modeling turnover intention and job performance: the moderation of perceived benevolent climate

Review of Managerial Science - Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory and ethical climate theory, this study develops a mediation model that explains how job stress influences both job...     

Foreign Competition and Innovation: The Mediating Role of Imitation

This study examines the extent to which foreign competition affects the innovation performance of domestic firms through imitation, given firms’ absorptive capacity. In analysing longitudinal firm‐level data from the UK, we find a mediating effect of imitation on the relationship between foreign competition and local firms’ innovation performance, and an inverted U‐shaped relationship between imitation and the innovation performance of local firms. Our findings further reveal that absorptive capacity moderates the mediating effect of imitation, diminishing innovation gains at moderate levels of imitation and mitigating the diminishing innovation performance at high levels of imitation.     

区域多元化抑或产品多元化?制度环境约束下民营企业核心能力构建与成长战略选择

在文献与理论研究的基础上,构建了制度环境、核心能力与企业成长战略选择之间关系的概念模型,并提出了相关假设。然后,以中国民营上市公司2007-2014年数据为对象进行实证检验,结果发现:市场化程度更高的区域,民营企业倾向于构建"行业专家"型核心能力,进而倾向于选择"做强"的区域多元化战略;市场化程度相对较低的区域,民营企业更多倾向于构建"社会资本"型核心能力,进而会选择"做大"的产品多元化战略。上述发现为企业成长与多元化战略理论补充了新的内容。