Alternative Courses Of Action Research Articles

Scaling up of Policy Experiments and Pilots: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Lessons for the Water Sector

The use of experimentation by practitioners and resource managers as a policy instrument for effective policy design under complex and dynamic conditions has been well-acknowledged both in theory and practice. For issues such as water resource management, policy experimentation, especially pilot projects, can play an important role in exploring alternate courses of action when faced with long-term uncertainty. While the political aspects of experimentation design and outcomes have been alluded to by several policy scholars, there is lack of empirical evidence that explores their interplay with other factors that may also be critical for scaling up of policy experiments. This paper examines experiences with scaling up of different types of water policy experiments through a Qualitative Comparative Analysis of fifteen pilot initiatives in multiple sectors. Presence of political support is found to be necessary for scaling up in 97 % of the cases studied, followed closely by the need for synergies with ongoing policies and programmes. When in combination with effective pilot planning and strong monitoring and evaluation, both these factors create a sufficient condition for successful scaling up in nearly 60 % of the cases studied.

Characterizing democratic deliberation in an online forum

The use of online forums to support civic discourses on localpolitics has gained momentum, but it isnot clear whether such online conversations generate relevant outcomes for democratic decision-making. Empirical studies in online deliberation suggest that online forums often produce fragmented and unorganized public preferences when conversations occur naturally without facilitation. However, it remains unknown as to what degree an unfacilitated online forum can achieve desired quality. Here we report a detailed content analysis on local newspaper forums to reveal the patterns of progression towards the formation of public preferences in a local planning context. Towards this goal, we developed a new coding scheme that incorporates speech acts as indicators of deliberation quality and a progressive five-phase model of deliberative decision-making. Using this coding scheme, the selected newspaper forum was analyzed using a three-step procedure. Our results pinpoint portions of the observed dialogue where progress is not made towards advanced phases of deliberation due to failure to develop common ground and joint assessment of alternative courses of action.

Point‐of‐Dispensing Location and Capacity Optimization via a Decision Support System

Dispensing of mass prophylaxis can be critical to public health during emergency situations and involves complex decisions that must be made in a short period of time. This study presents a model and solution approach for optimizing point‐of‐dispensing (POD) location and capacity decisions. This approach is part of a decision support system designed to help officials prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. The model selects PODs from a candidate set and suggests how to staff each POD so that average travel and waiting times are minimized. A genetic algorithm (GA) quickly solves the problem based on travel and queuing approximations (QAs) and it has the ability to relax soft constraints when the dispensing goals cannot be met. We show that the proposed approach returns solutions comparable with other systems and it is able to evaluate alternative courses of action when the resources are not sufficient to meet the performance targets.

Scientists, venture capitalists and the stock exchange: The mediating role of accounting in product innovation

This paper examines the role of accounting in the development of a biotech innovation, called the Pyrosequencing technology, intended for the scientific and commercial analysis of human DNA. Building on an extensive case study, we follow the development of this technology from its inception to the eventual downfall of the company built around the technology, Pyrosequencing AB. Using the concept of mediating instruments (Miller and O’Leary, 2007), we focus on how accounting calculations participated in shaping particular development trajectories by connecting and mediating between discrete domains and dispersed actors. We follow the development process in three different stages: first, when it was in the hands of the scientific founders; then when it became a commercial company, partially owned by a venture capital firm, HealthCap; and, finally, when Pyrosequencing AB became listed on the stock exchange. We find that different accounting calculations were used in each of these stages, and we analyse how these shaped the development process by forging particular linkages between scientific and economic ideas and different actors. Our study contributes to the literature on the relationship between accounting and product innovation in several ways: firstly, it provides an analysis of how certain accounting calculations enable particular development trajectories by mediating between different actors and domains. Secondly, our findings show the importance of attending to the shifting economic domains and economic ideas to which development processes may be linked. Finally, the results contribute to the discussion about the enabling or constraining role of accounting by showing how the enabling of particular development trajectories entails the constraining of alternative courses of action. This research adds a longitudinal perspective to the enabling/constraining question, which has often been examined using a cross-sectional design. We introduce the concept of calculative momentum as a way to increase our understanding of the role accounting play in this regard.

Orbitofrontal or accumbens dopamine depletion does not affect risk-based decision making in rats

Considerable evidence has implicated dopamine (DA) signals in target regions of midbrain DA neurons such as the medial prefrontal cortex or the core region of the nucleus accumbens in controlling risk-based decision-making. However, to date little is known about the contribution of DA in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the medial shell region of the nucleus accumbens (AcbS) to risk-based decision-making. Here we examined in rats the effects of 6-hydroxydopamine-induced DA depletions of the OFC and AcbS on risky choice using an instrumental two-lever choice task that requires the assessment of fixed within-session reward probabilities that were shifted across subsequent sessions, i.e., rats had to choose between two levers, a small/certain lever that delivered one certain food reward (one pellet at p = 1) and a large/risky lever that delivered a larger uncertain food reward with decreasing probabilities across subsequent sessions (four pellets at p = 0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125, 0.0625). Results show that systemic administration of amphetamine or cocaine increased the preference for the large/risky lever. Results further demonstrate that, like sham controls, rats with OFC or AcbS DA depletion were sensitive to changes in probabilities for obtaining the large/risky reward across sessions and displayed probabilistic discounting. These findings point to the view that the basal capacity to evaluate the magnitude and likelihood of rewards associated with alternative courses of action as well as long-term changes of reward probabilities does not rely on DA input to the AcbS or OFC.

A principles-based model of ethical considerations in military decision making

When comparing alternative courses of action, modern military decision makers often must consider both the military effectiveness and the ethical consequences of the available alternatives. The basis, design, calibration, and performance of a principles-based computational model of ethical considerations in military decision making are reported in this article. The relative ethical violation (REV) model comparatively evaluates alternative military actions based upon the degree to which they violate contextually relevant ethical principles. It is based on a set of specific ethical principles deemed by philosophers and ethicists to be relevant to military courses of action. A survey of expert and non-expert human decision makers regarding the relative ethical violation of alternative actions for a set of specially designed calibration scenarios was conducted to collect data that was used to calibrate the REV model. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the survey showed that people, even experts, disagreed greatly amongst themselves regarding the scenarios’ ethical considerations. Despite this disagreement, two significant results emerged. First, after calibration the REV model performed very well in terms of replicating the ethical assessments of human experts for the calibration scenarios. The REV model outperformed an earlier model that was based on tangible consequences rather than ethical principles, that earlier model performed comparably to human experts, the experts outperformed human non-experts, and the non-experts outperformed random selection of actions. All of these performance comparisons were measured quantitatively and confirmed with suitable statistical tests. Second, although humans tended to value some principles over others, none of the ethical principles involved—even the principle of not harming civilians—completely overshadowed all of the other principles.

Routines of morality: Nurturing familiar values in unfamiliar lands

Although many long-term Sri Lankan migrants to Italy have words of praise for Italian culture and find few reasons to permanently return to their hometowns, they often take the decision to bring children back to Sri Lanka for their education. The reason most cited to opt for Sri Lankan schooling is that ‘Italians don’t have good values’. Certain Sri Lankan normative practices that adults can circumvent while in Italy play a fundamental heuristic role in the education of children and are allegedly only present in Sri Lanka. However, values are also a fundamental aspect of arguments put forward by migrants to stay in Italy as workers. This article discusses the ambiguities that concepts such as values and culture have in the daily usage of migrant workers. To clarify how they are used in arguments for and against migration, I suggest that scholarship in the anthropology of ethics can be illuminating in the ethnographic context of the Sri Lankan transnational experience. I discuss how migrant parents critically approach their understanding of Sri Lankan and Italian cultures, and how they ponder over alternative courses of action that tread between the material objectives of migration and the ethical values of Sri Lankan Catholicism.

Design and Scaling Up of Policy Experiments and Pilots: Lessons for the Water Sector

The use of experimentation by practitioners and resource managers as a policy instrument for effective policy design under complex and dynamic conditions has been well-acknowledged both in theory and practice. For issues such as water resource management policy experimentation, especially pilot projects can play an important role in exploring alternate courses of action when faced with long-term uncertainty. While the political aspects of experimentation have been alluded to by several policy scholars, there is lack of empirical evidence that explores their interplay with other factors that may also be critical for scaling up of policy experiments. This paper presents a critique of factors that can influence scaling up of policy experiments, including pilots and draws lessons for experimentation in the water sector through a review of selected examples of water policy experiments and a Qualitative Comparative Analysis of pilots in multiple sectors. The analysis reveals that the design of policy experiments apart from being a technical process it is also highly driven by the interests, behavior and attitudes of the stakeholders, building on the argument that scaling up is a “craft rather than science” (Spicer et al, 2014). Presence of strong political support, synergies with ongoing policies and programs and regular monitoring and evaluation are found to be factors necessary for scaling up of pilots. When in combination, these three factors are revealed to also create a sufficient condition for scaling up.

Cost-effectiveness analysis: adding value to assessment of animal health welfare and production.

Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) has been extensively used in economic assessments in fields related to animal health, namely in human health where it provides a decision-making framework for choices about the allocation of healthcare resources. Conversely, in animal health, cost-benefit analysis has been the preferred tool for economic analysis. In this paper, the use of CEA in related areas and the role of this technique in assessments of animal health, welfare and production are reviewed. Cost-effectiveness analysis can add further value to these assessments, particularly in programmes targeting animal welfare or animal diseases with an impact on human health, where outcomes are best valued in natural effects rather than in monetary units. Importantly, CEA can be performed during programme implementation stages to assess alternative courses of action in real time.

Framing in policy processes: A case study from hospital planning in the National Health Service in England

This paper reports from an ethnographic study of hospital planning in England undertaken between 2006 and 2009. We explored how a policy to centralise hospital services was espoused in national policy documents, how this shifted over time and how it was translated in practice. We found that policy texts defined hospital planning as a clinical issue and framed decisions to close hospitals or hospital departments as based on the evidence and necessary to ensure safety. We interpreted this framing as a rhetorical strategy for implementing organisational change in the context of community resistance to service closure and a concomitant policy emphasising the importance of public and patient involvement in planning. Although the persuasive power of the framing was limited, a more insidious form of power was identified in the way the framing disguised the political nature of the issue by defining it as a clinical problem. We conclude by discussing how the clinical rationale constrains public participation in decisions about the delivery and organisation of healthcare and restricts the extent to which alternative courses of action can be considered.

Financing renewable energy: La Esperanza Hydroelectric Project

Purpose – This is a teaching case to be used in courses on funding and execution of renewable-energy projects, sustainable development, project finance or management of financial institutions. The case has been successfully used in courses at the graduate level as well as in executive education. The purpose of this paper is to achieve the following specific objectives. First, to illustrate the adjusted present value (APV) methodology to value investment projects in a project finance setting. Second, to show how APV methodologies can be used to value investment projects with subsidized financing and temporary fiscal incentives. Third, to understand how financial institutions use debt service coverage ratios to measure the capacity of projects to repay debt obligations. Design/methodology/approach – The primary source of information for the study case came from in-depth interviews with senior officials from E+Co and project sponsors. Documents from E+Co's loan approval process and investment committee minutes were also consulted. Also a site visit was performed. Findings – The case is quite interesting along several dimensions. To begin with the case deals with an important (and somewhat difficult decision) the general manager of a financial institution has to make. From a technical point of view, the case involves an APV analysis and requires the estimation of the value added (or destroyed) by several collateral effects of debt in the capital structure of the project (something seldom treated in formal courses or standard finance textbooks). In addition, even though standard financial analysis would probably have led to select on alternative course of action, the authors know the protagonist of the case actually decided to do something different based on an additional analysis (a nice postscript for the case, therefore). Research limitations/implications – Been a case study, the findings may be quite particular of the particular situation and context. However, the case provides good insight into the difficulties and problems entrepreneurs face in developing economies as well as in funding small renewable energy projects around the world. Practical implications – The case provides a number of important lessons and learning opportunities for sponsors of renewable energy power projects and managers of financial institutions. Originality/value – Please refer to the findings section above.

Functional cortical network in alpha band correlates with social bargaining.

Solving demanding tasks requires fast and flexible coordination among different brain areas. Everyday examples of this are the social dilemmas in which goals tend to clash, requiring one to weigh alternative courses of action in limited time. In spite of this fact, there are few studies that directly address the dynamics of flexible brain network integration during social interaction. To study the preceding, we carried out EEG recordings while subjects played a repeated version of the Ultimatum Game in both human (social) and computer (non-social) conditions. We found phase synchrony (inter-site-phase-clustering) modulation in alpha band that was specific to the human condition and independent of power modulation. The strength and patterns of the inter-site-phase-clustering of the cortical networks were also modulated, and these modulations were mainly in frontal and parietal regions. Moreover, changes in the individuals’ alpha network structure correlated with the risk of the offers made only in social conditions. This correlation was independent of changes in power and inter-site-phase-clustering strength. Our results indicate that, when subjects believe they are participating in a social interaction, a specific modulation of functional cortical networks in alpha band takes place, suggesting that phase synchrony of alpha oscillations could serve as a mechanism by which different brain areas flexibly interact in order to adapt ongoing behavior in socially demanding contexts.

Efficient lighting: reactivating the market through consumer stimulus

Subject area Marketing. Study level/applicability This case is oriented to undergraduate (BA) students taking courses in marketing strategy, branding, new product development and market research. Case overview This case deals with the events surrounding branding and positioning of a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) by a multinational company settled in Mexico. After working in a private–public partnership (PPP) that deployed millions of CFLs in the Mexican market, the company is now striving to understand customer repurchase behaviour. The company executives are struggling with product, technology, and distribution issues. Their primary task is to develop an appealing marketing strategy and a tactical plan in the context of reduced budget and sceptic customers. Expected learning outcomes This study's task is to enhance student's ability to perform functional marketing analysis; to frame issues according to a given business model to solve the problems that organizations face in developing innovative products; and to propose alternate courses of action and formulate competitive marketing strategies. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Shadow bureaucracies and the unilateral control of international secretariats: Insights from UN peacekeeping

While formal decision power in most international organizations rests with the member states, the member states often delegate the preparation of decisions to international secretariats. To prepare decisions, secretariats gather and analyze information and subsequently provide the member states with an assessment on the alternative courses of action. In this process, secretariats may accumulate an information surplus over the member states. They can use this advantage to suggest options close to their own interests. This article argues that, to counter such agency problem, the member states unilaterally invest in shadow bureaucracies with the aim to reduce informational asymmetries. Shadow bureaucracies are, however, costly. Member states have to weigh agency costs against the costs of domestic administrative capability. Strong states with outlier preferences are most likely to invest in shadow bureaucracies. They have most to gain. The use of shadow bureaucracies not only reduces agency costs. It also allows states more control over policy in international organizations. This article uses insights from peacekeeping in the United Nations to illustrate the argument.

Nurse moral distress and cancer pain management: an ethnography of oncology nurses in India.

The majority of cancer patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) present with late-stage, incurable disease, and basic tools to alleviate patient suffering-such as morphine-are often absent. Oncology nurses must cope with many challenges and may experience moral distress (MD), yet little research has examined this experience in LMICs. This ethnographic study explored the experience of MD with oncology nurses (n = 37) and other providers (n = 22) in India and its potential relationship to opioid availability. Data (semistructured interviews and field observations) were collected at a 300-bed government cancer hospital in urban South India over 9 months. Dedoose v.4.5.91 supported analysis of transcripts using a coding schema that mapped to an Integrated Model of Nurse Moral Distress and concepts that emerged from field notes. Primary themes included "We feel bad," "We are alone and afraid," "We are helpless," and "We leave it." A weak link between MD and opioid availability was found. Participants described significant work-related distress, but the moral dimension to this distress was less clear as some key aspects of the Integrated Model of Nurse Moral Distress were not supported. The concept of MD may have limited applicability in settings where alternative courses of action are unknown, or not feasible, and where differing social and cultural norms influence moral sensitivity. Improving job-related conditions is prerequisite to creating an environment where MD can manifest. Educational initiatives in LMICs must account for the role of the oncology nurse and their contextual moral and professional obligations.

Capacity allocation and coordination issues for the timely processing of outsourced operations

We consider dynamic capacity booking problems faced by multiple manufacturers each outsourcing certain operations to a common third-party firm. Each manufacturer, upon observing the current state of the third-party schedule, books capacity with the objective to jointly minimize holding costs that result from early deliveries, tardiness penalties due to late deliveries, and third-party capacity booking costs. When making a reservation, each manufacturer evaluates two alternative courses of action: (i) reserving capacity not yet utilized by other manufactures who booked earlier; or (ii) forming a coalition with a subset or all of other manufacturers to achieve a schedule minimizing coalition costs, i.e., a centralized schedule for that coalition. The latter practice surely benefits the coalition as a whole; however, some manufacturers may incur higher costs if their operations are either pushed back too much, or delivered too early. For this reason, a cost allocation scheme making each manufacturer no worse than they would be when acting differently (i.e., participating in a smaller coalition or acting on their own behalf,) must accompany centralized scheduling for the coalition. We model this relationship among the manufacturers as a cooperative game with transferable utility, and present optimal and/or heuristic algorithms to attain individually and coalitionally optimal schedules as well as a linear program formulation to find a core allocation of the manufacturers’ costs.

Comparing Aboveground Carbon Sequestration of Three Economically Important Bamboo Species Grown in Bukidnon, Philippines

Bamboo is widely distributed in the Philippines. As a non-timber forest product with a wide-ranging economic importance, bamboo has attracted the attention of ecologists because of its versatility in terms of ecological services including carbon sequestration and its potential to mitigate climate change. This paper assessed the carbon sequestration potential of three economically important bamboo species grown in plantations in Bukidnon, Philippines. Aboveground biomass (leaves, twigs and branches, and culms) and carbon densities of plantations of Dendrocalamus asper, Bambusa blumeana and Bambusa vulgaris were determined. D. asper statistically (α=0.01) had the highest aboveground biomass density with 177.6 t ha while B. vulgaris had the lowest density with 72.2 t ha. Aboveground biomass of the three species yielded an average organic carbon content of 47.38% with D. asper having the highest at 48.71%. Consequently, D. asper statistically (α=0.01) had the highest aboveground carbon stored with an average of 86.7 tC ha, followed by B. blumeana with 46.1 tC ha and B. vulgaris with 33.4 tC ha. Considering the potential of these bamboo species to store atmospheric carbon, there is a need to propose policies that strongly advocate the establishment of bamboo plantation-related projects in the country as an alternative course of action that can mitigate the impacts of global warming and climate change. Planting and managing bamboo plantations are recommended utilizing species like D. asper which has the potential to sequester relatively higher amount of carbon.

A decision model which considers qualitative factors

Today's key business decisions are frequently based solely on the judgement of 'technical experts'. While this may be the ultimate decision point, a more effective method would be to compare the alternative courses of action on the basis of some quantifiable measure. This problem is resolved by developing a mathematical model which includes qualitative factors in the quantitative analysis.

STRATEGY ANALYSIS AND CHOICE

Strategy analysis and choice seek to determine alternative courses of action that could best enable the firm to achieve its mission and objectives. They involve subjective decisions making based on the objective information. This article focuses on generating and evaluating alternative strategies, as well as selecting strategies to pursue. It introduces concepts that can help strategists generate feasible alternatives, evaluate those alternatives, and choose a specific course of action. Behavioral aspects of strategy formulation are described, including politics, culture, ethics, and social responsibility considerations. Modern tools for formulating strategies are described, and appropriate role of a board of directors is discussed. Special attention is paid to the process of generating and selecting strategies including a comprehensive strategy-formulation framework, as well as the cultural aspect and the politics of strategy choice.

A pragmatic mapping of factors behind deviating acts in aircraft maintenance

In this paper, we analyze twelve cases of deviations from prescribed procedures during scheduled/unscheduled maintenance checks, carried out by an aircraft maintenance organization in Greece. The detailed analysis of these cases let us identify specific factors that guided maintenance technicians towards alternative courses of action. Our focus is not on the material etiology of deviations but on the underlying factors that determined the actual decision action path by the air maintenance technicians. A generalization of factors is then being made, out of the specific factors identified for each case.The factors identified ranged from the most normative (e.g. manuals) to the most contextual ones (e.g. personal comfort, schedule pressures). We suggest that by making generalizations of specific factors identified from a pool of specific cases, we gain intimate knowledge on the cognitive and organizational basis of deviations. The intimate knowledge of the etiology of deviations may help us advance towards a resilient safety management in aircraft maintenance; one that goes beyond the striving for compliance, a safety management that (i) acknowledges people on the shop floor inevitably make choices and (ii) supports them in taking more “informed” and accountable decisions.