Capital Improvement Research Articles

Optimized maintenance model for wastewater treatment plants

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are facing significant deterioration due to aging and improper maintenance. Statistics Canada reported that 22% and 14% of the wastewater treatment plants in Alberta and Ontario, respectively, are in poor and very poor conditions. Because of the non-capital and capital improvement requirements for any WWTP, intervention decision-making tools are paramount. The objectives of this research were to develop an integrated condition rating model for the WWTP and an optimized maintenance, rehabilitation, and replacement (MR&R) intervention model. The condition assessment model was applied on case studies and the indices supplied by the operators were used to compare the results of model through the mean absolute error (MAE) calculation, which was minimal. To optimize the intervention decisions for various units of the WWTP, the binary integer programming was used. These models are expected to enhance the evaluation of WWTPs and facilitate intervention plans based on an optimized methodology.

The performance of local government, social capital and participation of villagers in sustainable rural development

ABSTRACT This study investigates the relationship between the performance of local government in promoting the social capital of villagers and their participation in sustainable rural development in villages around Tehran Metropolis. According to the traditional management perspective, economic, physical, and human capital plays the most salient role in the development planning process. However, according to the new management perspective which is intended to improve the dimensions of sustainable development, societies need to promote social capital rather than economic, physical, and human capital. This is because other capitals cannot be utilized optimally unless social capital is improved. Without sufficient social capital, other capital is wasted in a society. Therefore, social capital is considered a central principle in improving the dimensions of sustainable rural development, and managers who succeed in the production and improvement of social capital in association with the community are considered successful. The findings of the present survey with descriptive-analytical findings based on a questionnaire show that social capital has a positive effect on sustainable rural development. That is, increased social capital through the performance of local government increases the mean of the dimensions of sustainable rural development. In other words, increased social trust in the execution of social-economic plans by local government increases the participation of villagers in the execution of plans, social activities, and economic investment in villages leading to the improvement of the mean of the dimensions of sustainable rural development.

Should companies invest in human resource development practices? The role of intellectual capital and organizational performance improvements

PurposeIn this study, the authors employ an intellectual-capital based view of the firm to examine the relationship between three bundles of human resource development (HRD) practices (i.e. developmental, constructive and collaborative HRD practices), three dimensions of intellectual capital (i.e. human capital, organizational capital and social capital), and organizational performance improvements. Specifically, the authors investigate the mediating role of intellectual capital in the relationship between HRD practices and changes in organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors randomly distributed questionnaires to 1,000 HR executives of Taiwanese firms to assess the firms' HRD practices and intellectual capital. Firm performance data in terms of return on assets (ROA) were obtained from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ). To test the model, the authors used the longitudinal data over three years from 213 firms in Taiwan.FindingsThe results show that human capital and social capital mediate the relationship between HRD practices (i.e. developmental and collaborative HRD practices) and organizational performance improvements in terms of return-on-assets growth.Originality/valueThis study adds to the empirical evidence regarding whether or not investment in HRD practices can lead to positive changes in financial performance.

Influencing factors and empowering mechanism of participation in e-commerce: An empirical analysis on poor households from Inner Mongolia, China

A key measure of poverty alleviation is to enhance the overall ability of poor households. This research attempts to identify the influencing factors and empowering mechanism of participation in e-commerce. Firstly, a questionnaire survey was conducted among poor households in Mongolia, China. Based on the collected data, a structural equation model (SEM) was established and modified for the empowerment of rural e-commerce on the participating farmers and herdsmen. The results show that infrastructure factors (0.89), social network factors(0.491), cognitive factors (0.712) and resource endowment factors (0.394) have a significant impact on the participation of poor households in e-commerce; the participation of poor households in e-commerce has a significant effect on the improvement of human capital; online purchase and online sales both greatly promote human capital, and the latter exerts the greater impact (0.705); the indirect effect of the participation in e-commerce (2.198) is greater than the direct effect (0.790) between empowerment factors and human capital. The research results shed new light on the poverty alleviation through rural e-commerce.

Sectoral carbon budgets as an evaluation framework for the built environment

The objective of the United Nations Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C, with efforts to reach 1.5°C, requires a strict limitation of future global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions based on a global carbon budget. Applying equity considerations allows for the derivation of national carbon budgets. A key question then arises: How can these national budgets be allocated at the sectoral level? A new method is proposed to allocate carbon budgets at the sectoral level. First, a cost-based approach is used to indicate a necessary carbon budget for each sector. However, the aggregation of these initial sectoral carbon budgets usually exceeds the available national carbon budget. This indicates the relevance of working with sectoral carbon budgets and the required reductions to remain within the overall national carbon budget. This conceptual approach aims at, first, a cost-effective sectoral effort-sharing; second, the design of corresponding strict carbon emission reduction pathways (at both the sector and aggregate levels); and, third, the redesign of investment policies for capital stock improvements to remain within the aggregate carbon budget (involving trade-offs in investment induced emissions for operational emission reduction). Policy relevance Limiting global warming according to the United Nations Paris Agreement requires a strict limitation of future global GHG emissions. A new method is presented to allocate national carbon budgets to the national sectoral level. The carbon budget concept has the potential to provide a transparent and informative tool for the analysis, policy design and monitoring of GHG emission pathways, particularly for the long time horizons involved. The area of activity involving the construction and use of buildings, termed embodied and operational GHGs, requires a particularly large fraction of the national carbon budget. Compared with other sectors, these activities have the highest potential for keeping countries within their national carbon budgets as far as enabling capital stock improvements are concerned that over-proportionally reduce use emissions. The approach can link carbon budgets at the municipal, city and regional levels. It could lend itself to an initially voluntary initiative, later compulsory policy framework for substantial and cost-effective emission reductions.

The structural capital, the innovation and the performance of the industrial SMES

PurposeThe objective of this study is to analyze the influence of the structural capital of SMEs in the capacity of innovation and organizational performance, in the context of an emerging country.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consisted of 259 industrial SMEs from the province of Córdoba Argentina. The data was analyzed by Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS–SEM).FindingsThe study provided evidence that acquisition of information and knowledge management, organizational culture and structure, systems and processes have positive and significant effects on the innovation capacity of SMEs. Only the communication and cohesion component did not show positive and significant results on it. It also showed a positive and significant relationship between the capacity for innovation in processes and performance, contributing to the scarce empirical literature in the context of SMEs.Research limitations/implicationsThe research exposes some limitations that uncover a path for the development of future lines of research. In the first place, the work focuses on the use of a single source of information, the consultation at the managerial level of the company, without considering other representative variables to measure the capacity for innovation. Second, the study covered only companies in the industrial sector and country. Future studies should focus on other sectors and countries.Practical implicationsThe results of the study can have important practical implications for the owners and managers of SMEs. The results offer a vision of the dimensions of structural capital that most influence the innovative capacity of the organization. This is especially useful given that in the context of Argentina there is a low level of knowledge and structural capital is key to being more competitive. The managers of SMEs can thus increase the innovative potential of the company and favor the acquisition of information and knowledge and improve its processes and systems to contribute to the development of innovation capabilities to make SMEs more competitive.Social implicationsThe results obtained can be useful for those responsible for making public policy decisions, since in the knowledge of the economy to maintain a developed state and nation, it is necessary to include as one of the main issues on the national agenda the improvement of intellectual capital of its people to promote the competitiveness of companies.Originality/valueThe research contributes to the development of intellectual capital literature focused on the generation of innovation and performance in the perspective of SMEs in emerging countries.

Evaluating an adaptive management strategy for organizational energy use under climate uncertainty

Changing climate creates energy demand uncertainty that is essential for facility and organizational management. Energy conservation can be achieved through combinations of capital improvements and/or management strategies. One such management strategy is implementation of non-conditioning zones to reduce temperate season energy demand. In this study, we evaluate a temporally-based, non-conditioning zone policy originally developed for Kunsan Air Force Base, Korea and apply it to six locations across the contiguous United States, which coincide with major U.S. Air Force bases in various climate zones. Using projected temperature portfolios, we determine that the performance of the implemented policy is likely to change over the remainder of the century. In temperate climate zones, there is an increase in the potential non-conditioning zone by about a month. However, in a tropical climate, the potential duration for a non-conditioned zone reduces by over half by the end of the century. In addition to non-conditioning zone duration change, temporal shifts in the spring and fall seasons affect non-conditioning zone onset. The cumulative changes suggest the need for climate forecast-informed adaptive management policies to mitigate energy demand. The results of this study inform organization and facility-level energy management, suggesting adaptive management policies to address energy budget uncertainty.

Innovation At The Heights

Population growth in metropolitan Washington, D.C., has been on an upward trajectory in recent years, and this is especially true for Arlington County, in Northern Virginia. This increase in population corresponds to rapid student enrollment growth for Arlington Public Schools (APS). To accommodate this growth, APS created a capital improvement plan, part of which involved the construction of The Heights, a $100-million building accommodating two schools in Arlington. The building's “fan” design is possible because of a novel load-path concept that uses floating buttresses.

Can Elements of Intellectual Capital Improve Business Sustainability?—The Perspective of Managers of SMEs in Poland

Many organizations choose business sustainability to meet environmental, social, and financial demands to ensure responsible and long-term success. In order to achieve this, enterprises have to fully and optimally apply their resources. Intellectual capital is one of their most important resources creating market value and reinforcing sustainable competitive advantages. The main goal of the paper is to indicate which elements of the intellectual capital of small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland have the greatest impact on their sustainable development in the opinions of managers. The study took into account 1041 economic entities. Managers of small and medium enterprises operating in Poland have been asked to assess the elements of intellectual capital. The paper utilizes a new approach to the importance assessment of the impact of each characteristic on business sustainability. It is based on intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The proposed method is especially useful when variables are measured on an ordinal scale. In accordance with the classical theory of measurement, it does not allow the majority of arithmetic calculations to be performed. Based on the results of the research it has been determined that the most important factors are those which constitute human capital. Moreover, the observation has been made that there is a high degree of coherence of opinions expressed by managers of small and medium enterprises. The results of the research can be applied by both managers of enterprises in managing intellectual capital and employees of companies, by increasing their awareness of the topic of the influence of intellectual capital on business sustainability.

Harnessing employment-based social assistance programmes to scale up nature-based climate action.

As the severity of the triple challenges of global inequality, climate change and biodiversity loss becomes clearer, governments and international development institutions must find effective policy instruments to respond. We examine the potential of social assistance policies in this context. Social assistance refers to transfers to poor, vulnerable and marginalized groups to reduce their vulnerability and livelihood risks, and to enhance their rights and status. Substantial public funds support social assistance programmes globally. Collectively, lower- and middle-income countries spend approximately 1.5% of their GDP on social assistance annually. We focus on the potential of paid employment schemes to promote effective ecosystem stewardship. Available evidence suggests such programmes can offer multiple benefits in terms of improvements in local ecosystems and natural capital, carbon sequestration and local biodiversity conservation. We review evidence from three key case studies: in India (the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), Ethiopia (the Productive Safety Nets Programme) and Mexico (the Temporary Employment Programme). We conclude that, to realize the potential of employment-based social assistance for ecosystem benefits it will be necessary to address two challenges: first, the weak design and maintenance of local public works outputs in many schemes, and second, the concern that social protection schemes may become less effective if they are overburdened with additional objectives. Overcoming these challenges requires an evolution of institutional systems for delivering social assistance to enable a more effective combination of social and environmental objectives. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions'.

Has Commercial System Reform Effectively Stimulated Entrepreneurship? Evidence from Prefecture-level Cities

Commercial system reform is the most directly related economic system for a new business. It is the basic part of business environment, which greatly affects the cost, complexity and uncertainty of entrepreneurship. In recent years, China has initiated and promoted commercial system reform, which provides rare materials for evaluating the effect of entrepreneurship environment. In this paper, commercial system reform is regarded as a quasi-natural experiment. We collect the data of 283 prefecture-level cities’ commercial system reform by hand, use the Difference-in-Differences Model to investigate the impact of commercial system reform on entrepreneurship, and discuses the influencing mechanism and heterogeneity effect.The contributions of this paper are highlighted in the following aspects: First, the commercial system is the focus of system reform since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Some litera- ture pays attention to the influence of institutions on entrepreneurship, but there is no literature on the effect of commercial system reform on entrepreneurship. More importantly, although the existing literature discusses the impact of administrative examination and approval reform, it focuses more on the administrative examination and approval center. Based on the existing literature, this paper makes theoretical analysis and empirical evaluation on the entrepreneurial effect of commercial system reform for the first time. Second, our study takes the gradual reform of the commercial system as a quasi-natural experiment, and finds out the feasible strategy to identify the economic effect of commercial system reform. In this paper, the text analysis method is used to identify the process of commercial system reform, and the DID Model is used to investigate the impact of commercial system reform on entrepreneurship. Third, this study also analyzes the impact mechanism of commercial system reform on entrepreneurship, focusing on the market entry cost reduction effect and the government operation quality improvement effect. In addition, we also identify the heterogeneity effect of commercial system reform on entrepreneurship.The results show that commercial system reform has significantly increased the growth rate of new enterprises, and thus improved the level of regional entrepreneurship. Specifically, the implementation of commercial system reform has increased about 2% of regional entrepreneurship activities. This finding has passed a series of robustness tests. The test of the impact mechanism shows that commercial system reform reduces the cost of market entry and improves the efficiency of the government, thus promoting entrepreneurship. Further research shows that the promotion of foreign direct investment, the easing of financing constraints and the improvement of human capital can strengthen the promotion effect of commercial system reform on entrepre- neurship. The findings of this study provide useful reference for deepening economic system reform and stimulating market vitality to the maximum extent.

Ready-made garments exports earning and its contribution to economic growth in Bangladesh

This study attempts to explore the cointegration among economic growth rate, ready-made garments (RMG) exports earning and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in Bangladesh. It uses time-series annual data for the period 1986–2018. The study applies ARDL bound testing to determine cointegration among the variables, and pairwise Granger causality test to explore direction of causality. The result of ARDL bound testing reveals the presence of long run as well as short run relationships among the variables. The RMG exports earning significantly improves the economic growth rate both in the short run and long run. The more the RMG exports earning, the more will be the economic growth rate. The pairwise Granger causality test confirms a positive causality running from RMG exports earning to economic growth rate. FDI inflow has a significant negative effect on economic growth rate in short run, while no significant effect in the long run. RMG exports earning causes FDI inflow as the former attracts the latter. Therefore, the policy makers should target for improvement in human capital of RMG workers through various training programs that will boost the RMG output and exports earning, enhance their living standard and economic growth rate. The government may encourage FDI inflow particularly in backward linkage for woven fabrics that will minimize outward capital flight and boost the economic growth performance.

Asymmetric Information in Wealth Creation: Evidence from Landlords and Real Estate Agents

This paper examines the role of information advantages in the returns to housing investments using novel data on rental contracts. Real estate agents are found to obtain higher contract rents by about 1 percent more for landlords who hold a real estate license (or are personally affiliated with one) than for other landlords. Similar rent disparities are found among small landlords but not large landlords. Differences in capital improvements, property management arrangements, tenant default risks, or bargaining power do not appear to fully explain the results. These findings shed light on information advantages and potential conflicts of interest that affect the wealth real estate holdings create.

Financial Distress and the Role of Management in Micro and Small-Sized Firms

In this paper, we focus on the managerial characteristics of micro and small-sized firms. Using linked employer-employee data on the Portuguese economy for the 2010-2018 period, we estimate the impact of management teams’ human capital on the probability of firms becoming financially distressed and their subsequent recovery. Our estimates show that the relevance of management teams’ formal education on the probability of firms becoming financially distressed depends on firms’ size and the type of education. We show that management teams’ formal education and tenure reduce the probability of micro and small-sized firms becoming financially distressed and increases the probability of their subsequent recovery. The estimates also suggest that those impacts are stronger for micro and small-sized firms. Additionally, our results show that functional experience previously acquired in other firms, namely in foreign-owned and in exporting firms and in the area of finance, may reduce the probability of micro firms becoming financially distressed. On the other hand, previous functional experience in other firms seems to have a strong and highly significant impact on increasing the odds of recovery of financially distressed firms. We conclude that policies that induce an improvement in the managerial human capital of micro and small-sized firms have significant scope to improve their financial condition, enhancing the economy’s resilience against shocks.

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ ЧЕЛОВЕЧЕСКОГО КАПИТАЛА В УСЛОВИЯХ ЦИФРОВОЙ ЭКОНОМИКИ

The article considers various approaches of well-known foreign and Russian economists to the definition of the concept of human capital. Various approaches of the authors to the definition of the concept of human capital are highlighted and the main postulates of the research of economists of this concept are described. The main problem of the study of human capital is the specificity of the nature of human capital, which is due to the totality of the individual's physical and mental abilities that allow us to determine his ability to work. The author's definition of the concept of human capital of an employee of an organization in the realities of our time is given. As a perspective for the development of human capital, creative thinking and adaptability to changes in the natural way of things, namely, to the automation of production processes, are considered. The article describes the main elements of human capital: the capacity of a citizen, the qualifications of an employee, the personal and business qualities of an employee. Creative thinking is described as an element of human capital that can create new ideas, show creativity in work, and base its research on experiments and experiments. This allows you to effectively solve the tasks assigned to employees and modify production processes. The improvement of modern human capital involves the mandatory integration of an employee with automated production, the ability to manage digital processes and improve their mechanisms. Special attention needs to be paid to the implementation of personnel security procedures in the enterprise to minimize cybercrime attacks. For organizations, it is becoming necessary to train employees in the safe use of computer technologies. Such knowledge is aimed not only at improving the security of the organization, but also at developing the professional competencies of the specialist within the framework of his human capital.

Научные исследования Европейской части арктических территорий во второй половине XIX - начале XX в. как часть программы модернизации Европейского Севера России

The article discusses main stages of scientific research of the arctic territories of the European North in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. Drawing on historical sources and published literature, it concludes that the nature of research changed due to requirements of the time. It is known that the second half of the 19th – early 20th century was a time when society faced the task of expanding its reproduction base, which stimulated development of new spaces, introduction of new means of transport, and active inclusion of population and regions in production relations. The speed and efficiency of the developing commercial interactions between the territories came to the fore. Overcoming institutional and technical backwardness of the country and its territories involved a consistent expansion of the “effective national territory” by means of market development, spatial mobility of the main factors of production, capital, labor, and transport infrastructure improvement. The spatial expansion played a special part. The arctic zone of the North of European Russia presented great opportunities due its unique natural resources, and also prospects of solving geopolitical problems. This should have contributed to a new qualitative growth of production and transition to a new stage of development. Scientific research of the European part of the arctic territories, which was carried out at the time, was a part of the program of modernization of the North of European Russia, which unfolded on the pan-European scale. It was supported by the reorganization of administrative-territorial structure based on traditional structures of grass-roots management and prompted growing interest in the periphery as a source of resources for the growing economy; scientific research of the arctic territories intensified, as it became practical. Thanks to scientific research, the development of the Arctic territories became dynamic, which speeded up the integration of the region (in our case, the Komi krai) into the national space.

Management of the intellectual capital of the enterprise

Effective economic activity of a telecommunications enterprise provides for the use of an integrated approach to managing the intellectual capital of the enterprise. The article clarifies the concept of managing the intellectual capital of an enterprise. The elements of the intellectual capital management system are determined. The priority directions of the enterprise intellectual capital management improvement are formulated.

Can Human Capital and Asset Management Improve the Financial Performance of Older Age Groups? Evidence from Europe

Extending Ehrlich et al.’s (2008, 2011) labor-theoretic, rational-expectations model of asset management (AM), we investigate the interplay between AM and portfolio choices of older-age households in a sample of 11 European countries plus Israel over 5 waves of the SHARE longitudinal data in the period 2004-2015. Our analysis shows that education, health, and other components of human capital, generally determine the reduced-form demand for, or portfolio shares of, risky assets, the derived-demand for asset management time, and the household’s portfolio returns. Moreover, we find that education and underlying health conditions affect these portfolio outcomes largely through proxies of time household heads devote to asset management. Our key findings hold up against a battery of robustness and internal validation tests based on reduced-form and structural IV regressions, alternative regression specifications, and alternative groups of investors. We also find that the effects of education on the demand for AM time, risky financial assets, and portfolio returns, become larger as the opportunity costs of AM fall with age, which supports the mechanism of the asset management hypothesis.

Testing on Productivity Transition in Thai Economy through the Lens of State Space Model

This empirical investigation seeks to detect the behaviour of the Thai economy and its production input efficiency. After conducting various statistical tests, AR(|2|) model incorporating input factors seems to be the most appropriate specification. The state space model suggests that the estimated parameters statistically illustrate the transitional productivity. The technological transfer via direct channels shows its negative productivity. The labour productivity sheds some light of positive signal to human capital improvement. The monetary credibility points to insignificant inflation uncertainty, while the foreign exchange uncertainty provides some benefit to Thai businesses. Finally, the international integration discourages the growth of Thailand.

Livelihood capital improvements in the rubber growing community of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka

Rubber cultivation in Sri Lanka has recently been expanded to the Eastern Province. With an initial observation on the positive effects of this process on the rural community in this region, the present study was conducted to either characterize or quantify the impacts of rubber cultivation on the rural community assessing the livelihood capital assets, i.e. Human, Physical, Natural, Financial and Social aspects. Padiyathalawa Divisional Secretaries area of the Eastern Province with a reasonable number of rubber lands under harvesting was selected for the study. All farmers having mature rubber fields (33) were assessed together with similar number of non-rubber farmers of the same village for comparison. Both types of farmers were in the range of 40-60 years of age and educated up to secondary level in the local school. All had no other occupation than farming and having an average of four members in a family and all had sufficient family labour for on-farm activities. With the additional income generated from rubber, a higher level of Financial capital was observed among rubber farmers. As a result, expenditure of rubber farmers was 40% higher than the rest and its pattern showed that rubber farmers spend more on children’s education, family health and charity gaining a higher level of Human capital. Rubber cultivation has not so far influenced the Natural capital since all farmers had equal opportunities in accessing water sources and lands with fertile soils. Further, rubber associated development in Physical capital has made farmers to have basic infrastructure facilities for their houses, some luxury appliances for convenience, facilities to strengthen social connectivity and improvement in farming. With more social interactions, Social capital was found to be higher among rubber farmers. All these findings confirmed the suitability of rubber cultivation as a livelihood improvement strategy in rural development programmes in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka.