Dominant Supplier Research Articles

What drives the spatial variability of primary productivity and matter fluxes in the north-west African upwelling system? A modelling approach

Abstract. A comparative box analysis based on a multi-decadal physical–biogeochemical hindcast simulation (1980–2009) was conducted to characterize the drivers of the spatial distribution of phytoplankton biomass and production in the north-west (NW) African upwelling system. Alongshore geostrophic flow related to large-scale circulation patterns associated with the influence of coastal topography is suggested to modulate the coastal divergence, and then the response of nutrient upwelling to wind forcing. In our simulation, this translates into a coastal upwelling of nitrate being significant in all regions but the Cape Blanc (CB) area. However, upwelling is found to be the dominant supplier of nitrate only in the northern Saharan Bank (NSB) and the Senegalo-Mauritanian (SM) regions. Elsewhere, nitrate supply is dominated by meridional advection, especially off Cape Blanc. Phytoplankton displays a similar behaviour with a supply by lateral advection which equals the net coastal phytoplankton growth in all coastal regions except the Senegalo-Mauritanian area. Noticeably, in the Cape Blanc area, the net coastal phytoplankton growth is mostly sustained by high levels of regenerated production exceeding new production by more than twofold, which is in agreement with the locally weak input of nitrate by coastal upwelling. Further offshore, the distribution of nutrients and phytoplankton is explained by the coastal circulation. Indeed, in the northern part of our domain (i.e. Saharan Bank), the coastal circulation is mainly alongshore, resulting in low offshore lateral advection of nutrients and phytoplankton. Conversely, lateral advection transports coastal nutrients and phytoplankton towards offshore areas in the latitudinal band off the Senegalo-Mauritanian region. Moreover, this latter offshore region benefits from transient southern intrusions of nutrient-rich waters from the Guinean upwelling.

A Proposal on the Restoration of Nostoc flagelliforme for Sustainable Improvement in the Ecology of Arid Steppes in China

Nostoc flagelliforme, a filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium, is widely distributed in arid steppes of the west and northwestern parts of China. However, as a food delicacy this species has been overexploited from 1970 to 2000. Moreover, overgrazing, land reclamation and the removal of medicinal herbs have caused severely reduced vegetation coverage there. In this communication, a badly damaged but slowly rehabilitating N. flagelliforme-inhibiting steppe is described, and the rehabilitation of desertified steppes by the renewed growth of N. flagelliforme is proposed. The restoration of this dominant nitrogen supplier would be an ecologically sustainable solution for supplementing current measures already taken in the desertified regions. In addition, a goal of 50%–60% vegetation coverage is proposed by the N. flagelliforme restoration.

The Passing of an Era

The Passing of an Era

A dynamic perspective of the geopolitical supply risk of metals

Metals are distributed in the earth's crust in varying amounts and ore concentrations, implying that some countries have more metal resources than others. This inequality in geological resource distribution may lead to potential constraints and bottlenecks of a steady resource supply. In the context of strategic planning and innovation, and in scientific literature, this aspect is often referred to as geopolitical supply risk. In the past few decades, cobalt crisis, the oil embargo, and the more recent Rare Earth Elements (REEs) issue are the best examples regarding the geopolitical supply risk of mineral resources. The aim of this study is to present a historical overview of the development in geopolitical supply risk of 52 metals during the past two decades and to support an assessment of such risk in the future, i.e. 2050. A geographical mapping of metals primary production in 1994 and 2013 is included which shows a shift from developed economies to developing economies over this time period. Our analysis demonstrates that the geopolitical supply risk of metals has been fluctuating during the past two decades due to change in the number and production share of producing countries. During this time period, Chinese share of global metals production has increased from 23% to 44%. China, today, is also the dominant supplier of 34 metals, out of which 23 are considered as critical resources by the European Commission. The future geopolitical supply risk is less dependent on the present production distribution and more dependent on the location of current geological resources and the future discoveries, as well as on the technological development to improve profitability of mining the currently sub-economical resources.

Equilibrium contract selection strategy in chain-to-chain competition with demand uncertainty

This paper investigates the equilibrium contract selection problem for the dominant suppliers in two competing supply chains with stochastic and price-sensitive demand. The two suppliers, acting as the Stackelberg leaders, produce substitutable products and distribute them through each exclusive retailer, and can provide either a consignment contract or a wholesale-price contract. The equilibrium behaviours of the suppliers and retailers are investigated in three different scenarios: (1) the consignment contract scenario; (2) the wholesale-price contract scenario; and (3) the hybrid contract scenario. We prove that the equilibrium contracting strategy is of the threshold type: when the cost-share rates of the two retailers are above certain thresholds, both suppliers select consignment contracts; when the cost-share rates of the two retailers are lower than certain thresholds, both suppliers select wholesale-price contracts; when one retailer’s cost-share rate is above a certain threshold and the other is lower than a certain threshold, the supplier with large retailer’s cost-share rate selects the consignment contract and the other supplier with small retailer’s cost-share rate selects the wholesale-price contract. Furthermore, these thresholds depend on price sensitivities.

SILK AS A LUXURY IN LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN TARTU (ESTONIA)

Introduction Silk has always attracted human beings due to its aesthetic and exotic nature. In late medieval Europe, silk was probably the most expensive fabric and certainly a luxury item with high social value (e.g. Walton Rogers 2002, 2884; Muthesius 2003, 325; Munro 2009, 2). I believe that silk items belong to the most impressive and famous examples of textiles throughout history, because they have attracted attention for aesthetic reasons, complexity of production, and input of human effort. In late medieval Europe enormous varieties of silk fabrics were available, but only a small fraction were masterpieces worn by members of royal families or high status ecclesiastics. During field work much simpler scraps of silk have been found by archaeologists in deposits related to the everyday life of urban communities and 'ordinary' people. The present paper focuses on silk finds from medieval cesspits in Tartu, then a Hanseatic town in Livonia. The main aim is to give an overview of the nature of these 'simple' silks and how they were used by the inhabitants of a late medieval town. Questions regarding the affordability, social value and meaning of silk to the inhabitants of a medieval town will be addressed. The history of silk in Estonia begins with three brocaded bands and a fabric fragment found in a craft box at Lohavere hill fort that date to the beginning of the 13th century, i.e. the end of prehistoric times according to Estonian chronology (Peets 1985; Laul & Tamla 2014, 48 f.). Only during the Middle Ages (ca 12251558 AD) did an extensive cloth trade begin--mediated by Hanseatic merchants with imported fabrics from Western Europe becoming an important part of consumption habits in Livonian Hanseatic towns (e.g. Tartu, Tallinn and Parnu; Rammo 2010; 2015). Silk textiles were brought to Livonia along with many other traded goods. In written sources that relate to these Livonian towns, various sorts of silk have been mentioned: Syde, Floele, Damascken, Cammeloth, Zindeldort, Zendeling, Zindel (silberne oder goldene), Grobgrun, Grosgrain, Taft, Sammet, Atlassene, Stamete and Goldtborden Muzen (Pabst 1857, 202; Hansen 1894, 21 ff.; Mickwitz 1938, 58; Khoroshkevich 1958, 241; Poltsam 2002, 26). Among those listed here, cheaper silks woven on a treadle loom included tabbies such as taffeta (Taft) and cendal (Zindel), plain samite (Stamete), and satin (Atlassene) (Monnas 2008, 297). More complex and thus expensive weaves were made using a draw loom; these were damask (Damascken), lampas and figured silks, some of them with brocaded metal threads (ibid.). On the basis of archaeological evidence silk yarn was also traded. Until the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century, silk was mostly brought to Europe from the Byzantine Empire and Islamic countries of the Mediterranean area. During the 12th century the secret of silk production spread to Italy and from the 13th-16th centuries Italy and Spain (e.g. Lucca, Venice and Bologna) were the dominant suppliers in Western European markets (Spies 2000, 78; Muthesius 2003, 325; Monnas 2008, 5), from which silk reached Livonian towns. For example, Hanseatic merchants bought Lucchesian silk in the markets and cloth halls of London and Bruges (Muthesius 2003, 335; Monnas 2008, 8). During the Late Middle Ages silk was also occasionally traded via Novgorod, i.e. from East to West (Khoroshkevich 1958, 241). By the 14th century an enormous variety of silk fabrics were available in European markets, from plain taffetas to luxuriant velvets and glossy satins, as well as heavy fabrics brocaded with gold or silver (Monnas 2008, 4). Silk as a luxury The definition of 'luxury' depends on the temporal and spatial context. In a medieval town, luxury cannot be regarded simply in contrast to necessities, but it was something mostly used as an incarnated sign (Appadurai 1986, 38). Arjun Appadurai suggests regarding luxury as a special 'register' of consumption and not as a special class of things (ibid. …

Grain size characteristics and provenance determination of sediment and dissolved load of Alaknanda River, Garhwal Himalaya, India

Alaknanda River is a major tributary of river Ganga in its upper catchment area. The significant feature of the river is its high rates of sediment erosion and chemical denudation. The Alaknanda River catchment area has many major hydroelectric power projects and is always in the news because of environmental concerns. In the present study, both suspended and bank sediment characteristics of the river were evaluated for grain size and composition. The results show that suspended and bank sediment sizes vary from 8.79 to 56.34 µm and 23.73 to 563.24 µm, respectively. Suspended sediments are mostly finer to symmetrically skewed, whereas the tributaries are found to be negatively skewed. In case of bank sediments, grains are moderately sorted and mesokurtic. The provenance determination using rare earth elements and major oxide composition in suspended and bank sediments shows the Higher Himalayas as the dominant supplier of sediments. Along with the sediments, the source reservoir of dissolved load was determined using the water composition and an often used forward model. The results of forward model show silicate and carbonate weathering processes as a major contributor of dissolved load. Using this multi-approach of dealing with sediment and water, geochemical nature of water and sediments of the Alaknanda River has been better understood from the present study.

The Impact of Regulation on Competition in Telecommunications and Piped Gas

This article examines the ex ante powers to regulate competition bestowed on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in terms of the Electronic Communications Act, Act No 36 of 2005 (ECA) and on the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) in terms of the Gas Act, Act No 48 of 2001 (Gas Act) and the regulators’ recent exercise of these powers to regulate prices in the mobile telecommunications and piped gas industries. Since 1999, the South African competition law authorities have focused on the reactive or ex post exercise of their statutory powers in terms of competition legislation, in order to detect and prosecute anti-competitive behaviour. This includes industries regulated by another sector regulator such as in the electronic communications sector (ICASA) and in the piped gas sector (NERSA). Several complaints against dominant suppliers in these industries have been successfully prosecuted in terms of the Competition Act, Act No 89 of 1998 (Competition Act). There have been far fewer efforts by the sector regulators to proactively exercise their ex ante regulatory powers in order to create a market structure and conditions that facilitate competition in the sectors that they regulate. In this article, we examine the recent exercise of powers by ICASA and NERSA in the mobile and piped gas industries. We conclude that the provisions of the ECA have facilitated (i) the identification and analysis of relevant markets lacking in adequate competition and (ii) the promulgation of regulation that is needed to develop a more competitive environment in due course. However, ICASA's process in exercising its statutory powers has been slow and has suffered from various deficiencies. On the other hand, the analysis indicates that the legislation governing NERSA’s ex ante powers, and the way in which NERSA has enforced that legislation, has led to counter-productive regulation, which has hindered competition in the sector. Accordingly amendments to the Gas Act are required. Amendments effected to the ECA retain guidance to the regulator on how to conduct a market review, but the regulator should exercise these powers more often.

Optimal pricing contracts and level of information asymmetry in a supply chain

AbstractThis study considers a stylized supply chain model consisting of a dominant supplier and a buyer, in which the latter possesses superior knowledge of his private cost information. The supplier's imperfect knowledge about the buyer's cost is denoted by a subjective distribution. By assuming that the distribution is uniform, we first derive the explicit expressions of the optimal equilibrium outcomes of two contract formats offered by the supplier, the simple price‐only contract and sophisticated menu of contracts, respectively. Based on the optimal results, we continue to investigate how the supplier's expected profit varies with the level of information asymmetry, which is measured by the variance of the supplier's subjective distribution. Our findings indicate that the supplier's expected profits initially decrease and then increase as the supplier's knowledge of the buyer's cost becomes increasingly uncertain. That is, if the supplier could choose the level of information asymmetry, she would prefer a symmetric case (with the variance being zero) or a totally asymmetric case (with the variance being as high as possible). Numerical experiments demonstrate that our result still holds when we take into account such distributions as a truncated gamma and normal, and a fixed support of the distribution function instead of a moving support.

The 'Special Relationship' and the Challenge of Diversifying a Sugar Economy: Cuban Exports of Fruits and Vegetables to the United States, 1902-1962

For almost sixty years of the 20th century Cuban exports to the United States enjoyed certain advantages not available to any other sovereign country: at least a 20% reduction in import duties on items subject to a US tariff and privileged access to the US market for its main export, cane sugar. Given this competitive advantage, as well as its comparative advantage of climate and geographic proximity, this paper considers the degree to which Cuba was able to diversify its agricultural exports. The 1902 Reciprocity Convention provided the incentive for the development of a number of non-traditional fruit and vegetable exports geared to the US market. In less than two decades, Cuba became almost the sole foreign supplier of pineapples and grapefruit. Moreover, after the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Agreement which granted Cuba even more favorable duty concessions during the US winter season, it became the dominant foreign supplier of vegetables such as cucumbers, okra and eggplant, and an important source of fresh tomatoes. Further, in the post-World War II period, in most years the value of Cuban exports of processed fruit to the US exceeded that of fresh fruit. Yet, Cuban exports of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables to the US rarely comprised 4% of total Cuban exports. The concentration of land, labor, capital and agricultural research on sugar cane, along with external factors -- such as increasing US domestic production of similar crops and competition from Mexico -- served as a powerful disincentive to the sustained growth of non-traditional agricultural exports.

Opportunism in Distribution Networks: The Role of Network Embeddedness and Dependence

Prior research documents the value of network relationships to firm behavior but is relatively silent on how networks influence opportunism in distribution channels. Focusing on a common type of distribution networks in which multiple distributors serve a single, dominant supplier, this study moves beyond a dyadic view to examine how a focal distributor's relational and structural embeddedness in such a distribution network influences its opportunism toward the dominant supplier. In particular, we postulate that a distributor's relational embeddedness in the network curbs its opportunism, whereas its network centrality, as a form of structural embeddedness in the network, promotes its opportunism. Moreover, we propose that relational embeddedness magnifies the role of a focal distributor's dependence on the supplier in suppressing the distributor's opportunism, whereas network centrality buffers such a role. We first empirically test these hypotheses using data collected from car dealers in China; the results provide support for the hypotheses. We then develop an analytical model to validate and further explain the underlying mechanisms of the network effects. Our analytical results not only validate the empirical results but also provide guidance for managers on controlling opportunism in distribution networks.

Designing optimal and practical volume discounting contracts for the dominant retailer with information asymmetry

AbstractWith the increasing prevalence of huge international retail chains and the subcontracting of manufacturing to developing countries by owners of major international brands, the dominant‐retailer‐oriented incentive contracts become increasingly more relevant. The literature suggests that most of the contract formats known as channel‐coordinating for the dominant supplier become quite or totally ineffective when the retailer is the dominant player in the supply chain. A menu of contracts is shown to be theoretically most effective for the dominant retailer; however, it is too complex to be implemented in the real world. This paper first proves that the menu of contracts is actually a nonlinear volume discounting contract. Based on this characteristic, we propose two contract formats, namely, volume discounting on markup and volume discounting on slotting fee. Our results show that these two new proposed schemes perform substantially better than the currently most‐used contract formats (e.g., markup contract formats), and they can also be perceived as performing nearly as well as the menu of contracts.

'I Want My Money Back' Problems, Successes and Failures in the Price Regulation of the Gas Supply Market by Civil Law Remedies in Germany

The paper discusses the – seemingly successful - actions of German consumer associations against unjustified gas price increases by the dominant suppliers of so called “special clients”. The clauses in the standard contract terms of the suppliers were condemned either as intransparent or/and as unfair by the German Federal Court (Bundesgerichtshof–BGH), supported and extended by the well-known RWE judgment of the CJEU of 21.3.2013 ruling on the scope of Dir. 93/13/EEEC on un fair terms in consumer contracts. However, the actions of individual consumers for getting their money back after having been illegally overcharged have proven to be much more difficult because of a number of restrictive conditions imposed on restitution by the BGH which, in the opinion of this author, clearly violate EU law but have not yet been up to scrutiny before EU jurisdictions. The author makes a number of suggestions in this direction to help consumers, based on EU and/or corresponding German law, in particular Art. 47 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Power and Carbon Sovereignty in a Non-Traditional Capitalist State: Discourses of Carbon Trading in China

Carbon markets devolve governance to external institutions and displace power from sovereign states. Major producers in these markets, notably China, have expressed concern about the adverse implications for national interests and sovereignty associated with selling off the rights to emit carbon emissions abroad. This article suggests that such concern has shaped the discursive context in which emission trading schemes have gained popularity in the country. Our discourse analysis shows that notions of market power are made manifest as a powerful storyline. In the Chinese language, “power,” “sovereignty,” and “rights” all use the same character. The storyline captures all these expressions and allows for a positive view about active engagement in carbon trading as a way to protect development rights and redeem carbon sovereignty. Thus, the contested policy of emissions trading becomes embedded in the more appealing narrative of national development and made politically attractive, despite unfavorable realities against it.

Relationalism with Dominant Suppliers: Relational Advantage and Constraint

Based on the resource-based view (RBV) and the relational view of competitive advantage of firms, this research proposed a modification of the relational view by relaxing some of its requisite cond...

Buyer power and exclusion in vertically related markets

Suppliers and consumer organizations have become increasingly concerned by the build-up of buyer power of retailers in many markets. A major concern is that strong retailers will abuse their power to exclude products and rival retailers from the market to be able to increase prices to consumers. As a consequence, remedies to limit buyer power are discussed and implemented in many countries. In this paper we compare the incentives for exclusion, and the effect on consumers prices, under both buyer and seller power. We study a model with a dominant upstream manufacturer and a competitive fringe of producers offering their products to two differentiated downstream retailers. We compare the equilibrium outcome of this model when i) the dominant supplier holds all the bargaining power, and (ii) the retailers have all the bargaining power. We show that full or partial exclusion of either the competitive product or downstream retailers occurs when inter and intrabrand competition are strong. This is true both under seller and buyer power. However, in contrast to the received literature, we find that buyer power weakly enhances welfare compared to seller power because buyer power will lead to both more product variety (less exclusion) and lower retail prices.

The framing of unconventional natural gas resources in the foreign energy policy discourse of the Russian Federation

The advent of unconventional resources of natural gas has altered the order on global as well as continental gas markets. With rising liquidity, the position of established dominant suppliers is eroding. We focus on the initial response of Russia, the leading supplier of natural gas to Europe, to the new situation, building the research on unit-level constructivism and discourse analysis. We use frame analysis to reveal what image of unconventional resources was constructed in Russian foreign energy policy discourse (FEPD) in the period between 2009 and 2011, when the “unconventional revolution” did not yet have any sharp contours. We conclude that in Russian FEPD the unconventionals are considered as a distinctive and inferior source of energy compared to conventional natural gas. Emphasis is put on their economic irrationality and environmental hazards. The bottom line of the discourse is the idea that there is a choice between conventional and unconventional sources, with this choice being framed as one between good and bad, or right and wrong.

Reregulation of China's rare earth production and export

Purpose – Rare earths are essential materials for many high-tech industries critical to both economic development and national defense. China, the world's dominant supplier of rare earths, has recently been imposing stricter controls over its production and export. The purpose of this paper is to examine the domestic roots of the changes in China's rare earth industry production and exports in its three-decade rise to the current global monopoly. Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopts the historical institutionalism approach to analyze the trajectory of industry and trade development. The author analyzes data collected from government whitepapers and reputed scholarly and news sources. Findings – This paper argues that the Chinese rare earth industry has gone through three periods of development, in which the state attempted to control the market and industry through reformulating rules and institutions to achieve state goals. Domestic state institutions, combined with macroeconomic environment a...

China – Electronic Payment Services: discrimination, economic development and the GATS

AbstractThis paper provides a legal–economic analysis of the unappealed WTO Panel Report inChina – Certain Measures Affecting Electronic Payment Services(WT/DS413/R). The core issue was whether China's measures that resulted in there being only one dominant supplier of electronic payment services (EPS) in China violated the specific commitments made by China under the GATS. The panel ruled that the measures did not violate China's market access commitments because there were no explicit limitations on the entry of foreign suppliers, but that the measures were inconsistent with China's national treatment commitments in that they modified the conditions of competition in favour of domestic suppliers. This case illustrates the complexity in interpreting WTO Members’ commitments under the GATS.

Optimal Financing Order Decisions of a Supply Chain under the Retailer's Delayed Payment

In real supply chain, a capital-constrained retailer has two typical payment choices: the up-front payment to receive a high discount price or the delayed payment to reduce capital pressure. We compare with the efficiency of optimal decisions of different participants, that is, supplier, retailer, and bank, under both types of payments based on a game equilibrium analysis. It shows that under the equilibrium, the delayed payment leads to a greater optimal order quantity from the retailer compared to the up-front payment and, thus, improves the whole benefit of the supply chain. The numerical simulation for the random demand following a uniform distribution further verifies our findings. This study provides novel evidence that a dominant supplier who actively offers trade credit helps enhance the whole efficiency of a supply chain.