Central Decision Research Articles

State or soldier? Explaining China’s decisionmaking in India-China border crises

ABSTRACT Prevailing explanations for India-China border crises rely on rational actor models and assumes centralized decisionmaking. Instead, I argue that the several recent India-China border crises cannot be understood without separately interrogating the role of the PLA in China’s national security policymaking. I argue that the PLA uses its operational independence to continuously challenge Indian forces on the contested border. The Indian forces, when confronted, pushed back. The several recent border standoffs are a manifestation of the interactions between the two armed forces.

The importance of being … transnational

PurposeThe paper takes the lead from Forsgren and Yamin (2022), “The MNE as the ‘crown of creation’?: A commentary on mainstream theories of multi-national enterprises”, and accepts that the MNE can, indeed, be seen as the “crown of creation” in the world of business. The purpose of the paper is to show that this is due to advantages of multi/transnationality that must be sought outside rather than within the firm itself.Design/methodology/approachThe paper argues that the advantages of multi-nationality derive from the differences in regulatory regimes between nation-states and, specifically, from laws and regulations regarding the following: labour and social security, industrial policy, taxation and environmental regulations. Some examples are given.FindingsIt is claimed that the transnational company (TNC) has the ability to operate as a unified centre of strategic decision-making, and this gives it an advantage compared to operators it bargains with who do not possess such ability. Three such operators are discussed: labour, governments of nation-states and suppliers. In TNCs’ operations with foreign countries, a distinction is made between the spatial dimension and the regulatory regimes dimension. The interaction between these two dimensions leads to discussions on: regions within nation-states and their regulatory regimes, global value chains (GVCs) and free/investment zones (F/IZs). The conclusions draw policy implications and research agenda implications touching also on issues of TNCs as creator/destructors of social values.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper refers to other published work by the author – solo or as co-author – where the arguments are further developed, including the finding of a detailed case study. There are policy implications regarding labour and its trade unions (TUs) as well governments and their taxation and industrial policies. Details of such policies need further development.Practical implicationsThere are implications for theory development, policies and for research agendas.Social implicationsGovernments of nation-states and institutions within them – such as TUs – should try to co-ordinate rather than compete with each other in their bargaining with transnational companies. The breakaway of regions within nation-states further increases the power of TNCs.Originality/valueIn the development of theories of the TNC, this work shifts the focus from internal characteristics within the firm and its markets to external ones: to the nation-states as jurisdictional loci. The distinction between spatial and regulatory regimes dimensions in dealing with transnational activities allows a novel viewpoint on: regions, GVCs and IZs. A novel viewpoint is also given in relation to the role of TNCs in social value.

Voice of persons with a life-limiting illness in conversation with healthcare professionals: systematic review and meta-synthesis

BackgroundHealthcare organisations are transforming the way care is delivered to people with a life-limiting illness with an increased focus on recognising the voice of the persons experiencing the illness and...

Tigray: A Nation in Search of Statehood?

Abstract A devastating war broke out between the federal government and Tigray regional state of Ethiopia in November 2020. What is its cause and how does it affect the dynamics in Tigray and in Ethiopia in general? The article demonstrates using clear indicators that an authoritarian centrist elite and its policy that came to power in 2018 pursued a very centralised decision making, removing regional state heads and imposed new polices that violate self-government and autonomy of states. It brought back imperial Ethiopia’s polity building narrative accusing its predecessors and the post-1991 federal polity as disruption. Yet Tigrayan nationalism has also long pedigree. Its relative homogeneity and centuries of self-conscious experiment with autonomy has always been fundamental check against the centrist elite. Following the new developments, Tigray is reconsidering whether it is worth staying within Ethiopia or should secede and have its own state. Ideally there are menu of options that could provide a solution to both sides short of secession, but the new elite in power is pushing Tigray to the edges, abrogating its constitutional autonomy, putting under siege and denying all basic services for nearly two years and pursuing age old policy of surrender or perish, literally imposing secession to the region. The study is informed by theories of ethno national based conflicts, political autonomy and secession.

Design of fork-join networks of First-In-First-Out and infinite-server queues applied to clinical chemistry laboratories

This paper considers optimal design of queueing networks in which each node consists of a single-server FIFO queue and an infinite-server queue, which is referred to as incubation queue. Upon service completion at a FIFO queue, a job splits (forks) into two parts: the first part is routed to the next node on its route, and the second part is placed in the incubation queue. Routing of the jobs of multiple types is governed by a central decision maker that decides on the routes for each job type and aims to minimize the mean turnaround time of the jobs, i.e., the time spent in the system until service completion at the FIFO queue in the last node, and at all incubation queues on the job’s route, which may be viewed as a join operation. We provide explicit results for the turnaround time when all service and inter-arrival time distributions are exponential and invoke the Queueing Network Analyzer when these distributions are general. We then develop a Simulated Annealing approach to find the optimal routing configuration. We apply our approach to determine the optimal routing configuration in a chemistry analyzer line.

Optimal wholesale price and technological innovation under dual credit policy on carbon emission reduction in a supply chain

The adoption of new energy vehicles (NEVs) can effectively reduce vehicle exhaust emissions and achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals in the transportation sector. To facilitate the development of NEVs, the Chinese government issued the dual credit policy (DCP). However, whether the DCP can promote the technological innovation of NEVs and effectively reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector remains to be studied. This study constructed the decision-making model of NEVs under the DCP and obtained the optimal strategy to study the impact of the DCP on carbon emissions. Furthermore, we constructed a bargaining game model based on an alliance strategy to demonstrate the coordination of the NEV supply chain. The results showed that implementing the DCP can effectively reduce carbon emissions in the transportation field. The higher the technological innovation credit coefficient or credit price, the more significant the DCP’s incentive effect on reducing carbon emissions. Decentralized decision-making weakens the DCP’s incentive effect on reducing carbon emissions. The bargaining game based on alliance negotiation can enable independent companies to achieve carbon emission reduction when making centralized decisions so that the DCP’s incentive effect on reducing carbon emissions is optimized. The alliance between manufacturers is not to increase profits but to enhance their product advantages. However, suppliers can gain higher profits by participating in the alliance, which provides a theoretical reference for the alliance’s cooperation in decision-making.

Building responsive and resilient supply chains: Lessons from the COVID‐19 disruption

Building responsive and resilient supply chains: Lessons from the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 disruption

The growing gap between lean production and digital lean tools

PurposeThis paper aims to gain empirical insights into the relationship between lean production and digitalization within Industry 4.0 from a process-theoretical perspective. Following an initial report at the European Lean Educators Conference 2021 conference, the authors searched for explanations as to why digital lean tools stagnate, whereas production improves continuously.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a qualitative case study in a Norwegian processing industry company over a period of 18 months from 2020 to 2022.FindingsProcess theory offers explanations of why digitalization and lean can change over time. Despite agile development, digitalization is still characterized by centralization and programmatic planning. Lean production is decentralized, with long-term and continuous change processes. This creates challenges for coordination between digitalization and lean.Practical implicationsOrganizations should strive for coordination and collaboration between central and local decision makers and between digital and business process competence. Digital systems should have built-in flexibility for local setup, and local managers need sufficient competence to set up systems that are aligned with continuous improved production.Originality/valueThis study contributes empirical insights into real-life industry challenges to a literature that has until now been theoretical and focused on potential synergies.

Research on Pricing and Coordination of Dual-Channel Green Supply Chain

In recent years, environmental pollution and resource waste have become the focus of heated discussion around the world. In order to realize green and sustainable development, the development of green supply chain (GSC) has attracted the attention of many scholars. The research object of this paper is the dual-channel green supply chain (DGSC) composed of online channels and offline channels. The supplier is the leader of the entire DGSC, and it needs to optimize the wholesale price of the product and the level of green investment to maximize its own benefit. In addition, the supplier also needs to establish contracts with network sales platform (NSP) and store sales platform (SSP) to increase the benefit of NSP and SSP, and ultimately increase the benefit level of the entire DGSC. Among them, we constructed a centralized decision (CD) model and a decentralized decision (DD) model, and obtained the optimal pricing, optimal greenness and optimal benefit of the supplier, NSP and SSP under the two models. We found that the benefits of SC members under the DD model are generally lower than those of the CC model. Therefore, we built contracts between the supplier, NSP and SSP to coordinate. Finally, we substituted specific parameters to verify the model. The following conclusions are drawn: (i) When consumers prefer online sales channels, it will positively affect the online sales price, online sales volume and greenness level of DGSC. At the same time, it negatively affects offline sales price and sales volume. (ii) The benefit of DGSC and the benefit of NSP, SSP, and the supplier show a phenomenon of decline first and then increase with respect to consumers’ preference for online sales channels. (iii) Under the coordination contract, the subsidy factor positively affects the benefits of the supplier and online and offline wholesale prices, and negatively affects the benefits of online platforms and physical stores.

Emergency separation of conjoined twins in a tertiary hospital in Indonesia: three case reports

BackgroundEmergency separation of conjoined twins is performed when one twin is already dead or dying and threatens the survival of the other. The particular decision to perform an emergency separation of conjoined twins provides an ethical dilemma that needs special attention. Adding to the complexity of surgical and postsurgical management in emergency separation, ethical and sociocultural aspects further complicate decision-making.Case presentationFrom 1987 to 2022, 18 conjoined twin separations were performed in our centre. This paper describes three conjoined twin emergency separations. In the first case of thoracoomphalopagus babies at nine days of age, one baby was diagnosed with necrotizing enterocolitis with frequent desaturation and seizures, and the other baby was healthy. Emergency separation was performed on the twelfth day of age; unfortunately, neither baby survived the surgery. In the second case, emergency separation was performed on the 110th day of life due to sepsis in one baby. The nonseptic twin passed away six hours after surgery, while the septic twin died 12 days after surgery due to wound dehiscence and abdominal sepsis. The third case was of an omphalopagus conjoined twin with a parasitic twin. The healthy baby was deemed nonviable but found to be healthy upon birth. Immediate emergency separation was performed at 2 h of age. The living baby survived the surgery but passed away two months later.ConclusionsWhen separation is deemed necessary to save one twin, it becomes difficult to apply standard ethical medical reasoning. The decision to separate results in most cases in very high-risk surgeries with poor outcomes during surgery and postsurgery. Compounded by the complexity of the case, sociocultural and religious aspects further add to the dynamics of decision-making. A multidisciplinary team must work together with a health ethics committee and navigate through this ethical conundrum with the patient and family at its decision-making centre to decide on the best plan of care.

Asean's Attitude to the Coup in Myanmar Ne Regrette Rein

ASEAN has been confronted with this reality and this reality rests with its members, that the change of power in Myanmar is carried out deviating from universal norms or in other languages in ways that are not adab. How inconsistent ASEAN leaders are concerned, but what emerges is a contradictory polemic between the purpose of the meeting agenda and the press statement. If we want to avoid political lip service, the best thing is that at least ASEAN leaders should not forget the meaning of a word spoken ” Coup “. A coup is one of the ways of succession that is not adab ( deviating from universal norms ) According to Edward Luttwat the author of the book “COIR”, the essence of a coup is to seize power at the main decision-making center of the state and, through this, seize control of the entire nation. The concept of succession that is shown to the public and accepted by ASEAN pervasively has replaced the meaning of democracy controlled by legality, transformed into community-controlled, that is, through authoritarianism pacta The Organization of Southeast Asian Nations, which has democratic value in the form of democratization of coups, as a true cultural or social achievement. This reality must certainly be welcomed by those who have the views and ability to seize state power through the democratization of coups, becoming the new norm of succession of state leadership . Political affiliation and patterns of power behavior by carrying its components are the greatest asset to show the results of geographical political support (Regional Organizations). And furthermore the junta leader together with all ASEAN members took a ne regrette rein ‘ stance ( Don’t regret anything/ don’t regret anything).

Evaluation of systemic impact of tricuspid regurgitation: an appleal for the notion of tricuspid regurgitation.

Evaluation of systemic impact of tricuspid regurgitation: an appleal for the notion of tricuspid regurgitation.

Measuring accessibility to public services and infrastructure criticality for disasters risk management

Component criticality analysis of infrastructure systems has traditionally focused on physical networks rather than infrastructure services. As an example, a key objective of transport infrastructure is to ensure mobility and resilient access to public services, including for the population, service providers, and associated supply chains. We introduce a new user-centric measure for estimating infrastructure criticality and urban accessibility to critical public services - particularly healthcare facilities without loss of generality - and the effects of disaster-induced infrastructure disruptions. Accessibility measures include individuals’ choices of all services in each sector. The approach is scalable and modular while preserving detailed features necessary for local planning decisions. It relies on open data to simulate various disaster scenarios, including floods, seismic, and compound shocks. We present results for Lima, Peru, and Manila, Philippines, to illustrate how the approach identifies the most affected areas by shocks, underserved populations, and changes in accessibility and critical infrastructure components. We capture the changes in people’s choices of health service providers under each scenario. For Lima, we show that the floods of 2020 caused an increase in average access times to all health services from 33 minutes to 48 minutes. We identify specific critical road segments for ensuring access under each scenario. For Manila, we locate the 22% of the population who lost complete access to all higher health services due to flooding of over 15 cm. The approach is used to identify and prioritize targeted measures to strengthen the resilience of critical public services and their supporting infrastructure systems, while putting the population at the center of decision-making.

Ethical challenges and principles in integrated care.

Integrated care is an established approach to delivery in parts of the healthcare infrastructure, and an ideal which, it is claimed, should be realized system-wide. Its ethical weight derives from its defence of a view about how healthcare ought to operate. Although the goal of integration is laudable, it is ethically and practically complex, involving trade-offs. Considerable evidence attests to widespread enthusiasm for integration, given the need to prevent harm and extend the reach of scarce resources. Equally, evidence increasingly highlights the obstacles to successfully translating this ideal into practice. The principle that healthcare should be seamless, ensuring that patients do not come to harm through gaps in care enjoys broad agreement. There is a similar consensus that placing the patient's perspective at the centre of decision-making is vital, since this enables identification of these gaps. Integrating care by making it seamless entails blurring boundaries of care domains. This risks undermining the locus of responsibility for care decisions via confusion about who has ownership of specialist knowledge where domains overlap. There is a lack of consensus about how successful integration should be measured. More research into the relative cost-effectiveness of upstream public health investment in preventing chronic ill-health caused by modifiable lifestyle factors vs integrating care for people already ill; further research into ethical implications of integration in practice, which can be obscured by the simplicity of the fundamental normative principle guiding integration in theory.

Two-Sided Deep Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Mobility-on-Demand Management with Mixed Autonomy

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to operate on mobility-on-demand (MoD) platforms because AV technology enables flexible self-relocation and system-optimal coordination. Unlike the existing studies, which focus on MoD with pure AV fleet or conventional vehicles (CVs) fleet, we aim to optimize the real-time fleet management of an MoD system with a mixed autonomy of CVs and AVs. We consider a realistic case that heterogeneous boundedly rational drivers may determine and learn their relocation strategies to improve their own compensation. In contrast, AVs are fully compliant with the platform’s operational decisions. To achieve a high level of service provided by a mixed fleet, we propose that the platform prioritizes human drivers in the matching decisions when on-demand requests arrive and dynamically determines the AV relocation tasks and the optimal commission fee to influence drivers’ behavior. However, it is challenging to make efficient real-time fleet management decisions when spatiotemporal uncertainty in demand and complex interactions among human drivers and operators are anticipated and considered in the operator’s decision making. To tackle the challenges, we develop a two-sided multiagent deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach in which the operator acts as a supervisor agent on one side and makes centralized decisions on the mixed fleet, and each CV driver acts as an individual agent on the other side and learns to make decentralized decisions noncooperatively. We establish a two-sided multiagent advantage actor-critic algorithm to simultaneously train different agents on the two sides. For the first time, a scalable algorithm is developed here for mixed fleet management. Furthermore, we formulate a two-head policy network to enable the supervisor agent to efficiently make multitask decisions based on one policy network, which greatly reduces the computational time. The two-sided multiagent DRL approach is demonstrated using a case study in New York City using real taxi trip data. Results show that our algorithm can make high-quality decisions quickly and outperform benchmark policies. The efficiency of the two-head policy network is demonstrated by comparing it with the case using two separate policy networks. Our fleet management strategy makes both the platform and the drivers better off, especially in scenarios with high demand volume. History: This paper has been accepted for the Transportation Science Special Issue on Emerging Topics in Transportation Science and Logistics. Funding: This work was supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research [Grant MOE2019-T2-2-165] and the Singapore Ministry of Education [Grant R-266-000-135-114].

Handlungsfähig, flexibel und exekutivdominiert: Wie der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine die Europäische Union verändert

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine poses an enormous challenge also for the crisis-tested European Union (EU). The analysis of the impact on its institutional structures shows that so far there has been no radical transformation of the EU, but that its institutions have expanded on flexible mechanisms developed in previous crises. Intergovernmental-executive dominance continued, with the European Council and the European Commission at the centre of decision-making, while the European Parliament remained largely at the margins. In the long term, the promise of EU membership for Ukraine and the revival of accession processes with the countries of the Western Balkan open up the prospect of a broader transformation; in the short term, immediate constitutional debates were avoided even after the Conference on the Future of Europe. The structures of the EU have proven flexible in crisis management, yet long-term reforms are necessary to ensure the democratic legitimacy and capacity to act of a potentially enlarged EU.

Application of a multi-agent approach to solving problems of development of integrated energy systems

Currently, when solving the problems of developing energy systems, it is necessary to take into account the profound changes associated with the transition from consideration of centralized planning and management to a new paradigm of a multilateral process of substantiating decisions and creating mechanisms for their implementation in conditions of uncertainty, multicriteria and a plurality of conflicting interests. The development of modern energy systems requires the use of innovative methods and technologies for their study, which assume the presence of many decision-making centers and take into account the complex structure of these systems. In this paper, to solve the problems of development of integrated energy systems, a multi-agent approach is used, in which solutions are obtained as a result of the interaction between a set of agents. Based on the proposed structure of the multi-agent system, a multi-agent model of an integrated energy system was developed in the AnyLogic software environment. A number of computational experiments were carried out, which made it possible to verify the developed principles of the interaction of objects in an integrated energy system when solving development problems.

Методологія бюджетування у взаємозв’язку з управлінською звітністю

In order to effectively manage the company's resources, it is necessary to draw up financial plans, control the flow of income and expenses, and correlate strategic and managerial decisions with the current economic situation. These tasks can be implemented through budgeting. The article aims to generalize the theoretical and methodological principles of budgeting and management reporting and substantiate recommendations for their improvement based on the analysis of best international practices. It was determined that budgeting is considered as: 1) a management function characterized by general scientific and practical approaches to the goal, purpose, tasks and functional content; 2) an element of the management accounting system concerning management reporting. The factors causing the problem of low budgeting efficiency in Ukrainian enterprises were disclosed. The research draws a parallel between traditional budgeting systems, which have proven themselves in the practice of Ukrainian enterprises, and innovative ones of foreign origin. It was proposed to use instrumental technologies of Lean and frugal production in budgeting. It was recommended to develop the ideology of budgeting based on the philosophy of praxeology. This approach will increase the role of budgeting in making managerial decisions. It was determined that an important element of the budgeting process is the internal management reporting system, which is formed in connection with the design and content of budgets. Innovative budgeting methods are factors in the development of the management reporting system. Management reporting should be improved in terms of form, content and design. The authors consider the design of management reporting as a bridge between the executor and the consumer of the information product, capable of increasing the level of understanding and trust between the management accounting accountant and the decision-making centre, i.e. the manager (owner).

МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЙ ПОДХОД К КАТЕГОРИАЛЬНОМУ РАЗЛИЧИЮ УЧЁТНОЙ И ОТЧЁТНОЙ ИНФОРМАЦИИ

An accounting information system plays a fundamental role because it both informs and controls the management system so that the latter acts rationally according to the principle of economic efficiency. At the same time, the information flow generated varies according to the needs of the various decision-making centers. The concept of “accounting information”, as a rule, gives an idea of how, internal and external stakeholders, form their understanding of the financial and economic condition and performance of the business, as well as the committed facts of economic life. From the point of view of the modern theory of accounting, this information is of fundamental importance, because it is a prerequisite, on which the decision-making process is based. The article analyzes methodological approaches to the classification of types of non-financial and financial information for the purpose of their presentation in the corporate accounting reports.

ОБҐРУНТУВАННЯ РІШЕНЬ В УПРАВЛІННІ ДІЯЛЬНІСТЮ ВІЙСЬКОВОЇ ЧАСТИНИ НА ОСНОВІ ФАКТОРНОГО ПІДХОДУ

Іn order to thoroughly justify decisions in the management of the activities of military units, aimed at achieving certain goals with the rational use of available resources, the possibility of using the provisions of the factor approach is considered. It ensures within the defined centers of factor responsibility decision-making on the implementation of measures to achieve the desired result of the activity of the military unit on the basis of the "effect-cost" criterion. The essence of factor management is formulated, which consists in the fact that for any object of management, a generalized indicator of the results of its activity is formed, which is presented as a function of indicators of individual factors: types, parties, conditions of activity. For the action of each factor, relevant units of the object or officials, so-called centers of factor responsibility, are appointed, who coordinate the action of the controlled factor in all functions of the management cycle, from planning to obtaining and analyzing the final result. A scheme for managing the activities of a military unit is proposed, which is based on a factor approach. The methodical apparatus for its implementation is being formed, which includes: the formation of a general indicator of the results of the military unit and its structural divisions, the construction of a factor system and the determination of the centers of factor responsibility; conducting an analysis of the results of the military unit's activities for the reporting period in order to determine reserves for their improvement; substantiation of the desired result of the activity of the military unit and units for the planned period in quantitative terms; formation of a list of measures for the implementation of identified reserves and selection of their optimal composition to ensure the desired result. The implementation of the management scheme is completed by delivering the selected measures to the executors, organizing their implementation, implementing motivational measures, implementing ongoing control and, if necessary, carrying out corrective actions.