Profit Improvement Research Articles

Have restaurant firms been using right recession turnaround strategies?: Evaluating with propensity score measure

Abstract Among the diverse strategies that restaurants use in recessions, some studies have shown that strategies that increase advertising, profit margins, or asset turnover have yielded promising results in terms of firm performance. However, the success of these turnaround strategies might be due to the health or size of a firm rather than the implementation of these strategies. Therefore, this study empirically tested this question utilizing the propensity score measure (PSM) due to concerns with selection bias across restaurant segments. The results showed significant improvements in revenue for limited-service and franchise restaurants when aggressive advertising was used but no improvements in profitability. The profit margin strategy had no impact on revenue but affected profitability and stock returns positively for all segments. Finally, the asset turnover strategy had adverse effects on revenue the year after a recession for all segments. These mixed results suggest that managers need to be cautious when implementing recession turnaround strategies.

Rational Organizational Structure:For Brick-and-Mortar Lifestyle Retailers in India to Overcome Diseconomies of Scale and Protect Firm’s Sustainability(ROLS-b)

A majority of organized brick-and-mortar lifestyle retailers in India believe that the brick-and-mortar retailing model ensures economies of scale as they keep opening new stores. Having more stores might help retailers to gain product sourcing advantages in addition to generating additional revenue to the firm but at the same time, it fails to provide any other benefits towards economies of scale as every new store comes with new one-time capital expenditures and recurring fixed expenses. Another misconception is that lifestyle retailing must follow an organizational structure (OS) that is adopted by their parent company and hence a majority of OS adopted by lifestyle retailers in India is dependent on organizational form. This study was not limited to just recommending a rational OS based on exploratory research and existing theories in the OS domain. Once the ROLS-b was designed, we have experimented with the proposed rational OS on one of the ten lifestyle retailers in the study to test the validity and reliability. Experimentation results empirically and qualitatively demonstrate that the existing belief of brick-and-mortar lifestyle retailers in India which assumes economies of scale and long-term firm’s sustainability as the retailer increases the store count is just a misconception and does not hold. On the other hand, when we experimented the ROLS-b for over twelve months at over 25 percent stores of a select retailer, results demonstrate that these stores which have gone through the treatment have shown 5.34 times improvement in the store-level profit and 1.97 times in the firm-level profit in addition to eliminating a majority of gaps found in the existing OS that was leading to diseconomies of scale and deteriorating firm’s performance.

Integrated planning decisions in the broiler chicken supply chain

AbstractIn the poultry industry, the meat market requires a careful coordination of the broiler chicken supply chain comprising breeders, hatcheries, farms, slaughterhouses, wholesale, and retail vendors. Aside from the inherent challenges of coordinating a supply chain, animal husbandry systems face additional complex tasks. The lack of integrated decisions within the poultry chain could lead to a production plan that (a) does not comply with the biosecurity standards required in meat production for human consumption at the farms; (b) violates the production and inventory capacities at the slaughterhouses; and (c) does not meet the demand of customers. To streamline the supply chain, we propose a mixed‐integer linear programming model that supports production planning and scheduling decisions in broiler chicken production facilities. In addition, we embedded the mixed‐integer programming model in a rolling‐horizon scheme to improve scalability and to avoid the myopic effect of time‐indexed optimization models that put too much emphasis on a specific time period. We present the results of a case study in a poultry company in Santa Marta (Colombia), where we reach profit improvements that range from 7% to 57% with a reduction in inventory costs that range from 30% to 60%, while simultaneously meeting stringent technical, tactical, and biosecurity constraints.

The Game Analysis of Low Carbon Supply Chain Emission Reduction Considering Channel Power under the Concern of Fairness

The emission reduction strategies of different channel power structures is studied under the fair, neutral and fair concerns of manufacturers, and compares the emission reduction levels, wholesale and retail prices, and the changes and differences in the profits of supply chain members under various circumstances. The research shows that the increase of emission reduction cost factor is not conducive to the improvement of emission reduction level, price and profit. The profit level of manufacturer under the manufacturer-led structure is not conducive to the manufacturer-led structure due to other structures, but is conducive to the improvement of the profit level of manufacturer under other structures. Manufacturer’s equity concern behaviour is beneficial to the improvement of manufacturer’s utility, in which the equity concern factor should be kept at a certain level under Nash vertical structure. Equity concerns and emission reduction strategies under decentralized decision-making are not conducive to the improvement of the overall supply chain effectiveness.

Technology transfer in the construction industry

The demand for affordable, high-quality homes and premises has increased as society has evolved. Construction companies have shown that an industrialised housebuilding (IHB) platform strategy is an effective way of meeting exacting customer requirements. We decided to apply a managerial perspective and consider the IHB platform as a technological solution when investigating technology transfer (TT) in a construction context. Drawing on a meta-analysis of the literature and a qualitative case study at an IHB company, this work examines how two construction companies participate in TT. The results show that the IHB platform strategy can help a company overcome uncertainties associated with the TT process. Furthermore, the platform strategy supports the transferability of IHB to different markets, which, in turn, provides unique opportunities for companies from other contexts to enter the construction market. Our findings also revealed that CEOs from three construction companies were not only interested in TT due to potential profit improvements, but also considered how the process could benefit their employees and the community. This may be a result that is specific to Nordic culture or insight into a unique characteristic of the broad construction industry. This study contributes knowledge to the scarce research field of TT in a construction context. It provides evidence for how further cases of TT may disrupt the construction industry in terms of new business models or companies from the diverse field entering the market.

Operating Profit Drivers for Large Companies in the Spanish Hotel Sector: A Temporal Analysis (2004-2017)

The improvement of performance and profitability in hotel companies is backed by a continuous and progressive management process. However, research methodologies have generally adopted a static perspective that does not specify the concrete trajectories used by companies to improve management performance and profitability. This article proposes a dynamic methodological approach to analyze the profit drivers of the largest Spanish hotel companies throughout the period 2004 to 2017. This period is characterized by a recession and subsequent economic recovery, and therefore, it supplies a long and varying perspective for evaluating the management trajectories used by these companies to push their profits. Findings show that the composition of profit drivers is neither uniform nor time invariant and can depend on both external and internal factors.

Does cooperation among women enhance or impede firm performance?

Based on the notion that women cooperate more with women than with men, we investigate whether women managers work more effectively when monitored by women directors. We find that when a firm has women as its top managers, its accounting profitability increases with the proportion of women on the board of directors. However, the improvement in profitability is associated with earnings management. We show that women are likely to be appointed to precarious leadership positions, which puts pressure on them to ameliorate the weak earnings performance. Finally, consistent with the interaction between women resulting in an unfavourable response from investors, we document a negative stock market reaction to the appointment of female top managers in the presence of women on the board.

Lean Six Sigma and Business Engineering Perspective of Electrical Energy Optimization

This paper combined both theoretical perspective of Lean Six Sigma and Business Engineering; and its managerial implementation within electrical energy company in Middle East. The mentioned company is producing nitrogen gas for the supply purpose of oil, chemical and manufacturing industry processes. Integrative part of this company’s strategic objectives refers to profitability improvement and production performance through escalating company profit. In narrowed down objective scope, it refers to the Electrical Energy Optimization. This paper relates the mentioned company’s empirical and managerial implementation with theoretical perspective of Lean Six Sigma and Business Engineering. Quantitative approach of Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma are capitalized in this paper’s research methodology to identify problem cause. This paper in particular elaborates the scholar view of Hadid et al (2016) on Lean Six Sigma. The mentioned scholar views within theoretical perspective. It investigates the interaction term between Lean’s social practices and technical practices against the performance measures of financial and operations. This investigation relates to the company’s strategic objectives as unit analysis in this paper. Furthermore, the scholar view of Bärenfänger and Steinbuß (2015) view Business Engineering in its Digital form of Business Engineering as a comprehensive method for digital business model design. Subsequently, data results in this paper convey its interpretation results from production division, which is approximately 81.16% of nitrogen gas that is originated from engine design as its problem cause. To conclude, within Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma, this paper discussion refers to the value of 1.36 that becomes 2.62 ratio. Specific power of production decreases from 1.45 kw/Nm3 into 0.646 kw/Nm3, as originated from the escalating production of the so called highly impact the company performance versus costs incurred.Ultimately, it is harnessing discussion of the theoretical and managerial implication in this paper.

Assessment of the Socio Economic and Political Implications of ECOWAS Free Movement

This paper examines the extent the ECOWAS free movement protocol of persons, goods and services contributes to the economic and political growth of Nigeria which is an active member state. The protocol on free movement is often hijacked by criminals from some member states, neighbors and within to perpetrate trans-border crimes such as smuggling of arms, drugs and other forms of crimes. Political development is the heart beat of other development in any country. This is because power rest in political sphere and it is through power that other development such as economic development rest. The system of government in place, the ideals of the government and the stability of the government determine the profitable, societal plus cultural improvement of the nation. The role plays by civil societies, mass media and some section of activists toward the return to democracy in Nigeria are more appreciated and noticeable than that of ECOWAS. This indicates that there is always romance between ECOWAS and West African dictators especially in Nigeria. This unholy relationship might not be far from the fact that most leaders under ECOWAS are once dictators who benefited from the silence of the community or the leaders are mute considering the benefit their individual states get from dictators in Nigeria. The study primarily adopted the desk research design which involves the use of secondary source of data. The analyses of the data were carried out using content analysis. The study revealed that the performance of ECOWAS were undermined by various factors such as lack of political will, fear and mutual distrust, cultural and colonial differences among others. These factors inhibited the full actualization of the protocol among member states. The study concluded that Nigerian government should evaluate her activities in ECOWAS and should ensure that member states contribute their quota to the community as enshrine in the treaty.Â

Availability analysis of an Energy Hub with CCHP system for economical design in terms of Energy Hub operator

The efficient and correct design of an Energy Hub (EH) is associated with the improvement in energy conversion efficiency and EH profitability. The novel method of coupling thermo-economic analysis with reliability and risk assessment offers incredible potential in improving the overall performance of the whole system from the cost and energy-saving aspect. In this study, a cost-efficient EH plant consisting of combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) system is designed to be economically optimum regarding the EH operator. On the demand side, the energy consumer is a high-rise residential building that provides its cooling and heating demands through the EH. As a new optimization approach, an optimum cost-efficient EH has been designed by coupling the thermo-economic analysis along with reliability and availability assessments. System total cost is compared with the conventional planning method, where the system availability and reliability of the EH components are not considered in the optimization model. The new planning method reveals 119%, 69%, 74%, and 16% reduction in the system energy cost, demand penalty cost, operation cost, and total cost during the EH life span, respectively. Additionally, a new index as “real availability” is calculated and introduced based on the energy demand profile of the EH. Unlike the Markov method, where an available system is defined in such a way that all subsystems are healthy, the new approach introduces the EH availability following the energy demand profile. In this regard, results prove a vast difference comparing Markov-based availability and system real availability.

Personality- and Value-Aware Scheduling of User Requests in Cloud for Profit Maximization

The main goal of a cloud provider is to make profits by providing services to users. Existing profit optimization strategies employ homogeneous user models in which user personality is ignored, resulting in fewer profits and particularly notably lower user satisfaction that in turn, leads to fewer users and reduced profits. In this article, we propose efficient personality-aware request scheduling schemes to maximize the profit of the cloud provider under the constraint of user satisfaction. Specifically, we first model the service requests at the granularity of individual personality and propose a personalized user satisfaction prediction model based on questionnaires. Subsequently, we design a personality-guided integer linear programming (ILP)-based request scheduling algorithm to maximize the profit under the constraint of user satisfaction, which is followed by an approximate but lightweight value assessment and cross entropy (VACE)-based profit improvement scheme. The VACE-based scheme is especially tailored for applications with high scheduling resolution. Extensive simulation results show that our satisfaction prediction model can achieve the accuracy of up to 83 percent, and our profit optimization schemes can improve the profit by at least 3.96 percent as compared to the benchmarking methods while still obtaining a speedup of at least 1.68x.

On Coordination of Smart Grid and Cooperative Cloud Providers

Cooperative cloud providers in the form of cloud federations can potentially reduce their energy costs by exploiting electricity price fluctuations across different locations. In this environment, on the one hand, the electricity price has a significant influence on the federations formed, and, thus, on the profit earned by the cloud providers, and on the other hand, the cloud cooperation has an inevitable impact on the performance of the smart grid. In this regard, the interaction between independent cloud providers and the smart grid is modeled as a two-stage Stackelberg game interleaved with a coalitional game in this article. In this game, in the first stage the smart grid, as a leader chooses a proper electricity pricing mechanism to maximize its own profit. In the second stage, cloud providers cooperatively manage their workload to minimize their electricity costs. Given the dynamic of cloud providers in the federation formation process, an optimization model based on a constrained Markov decision process (CMDP) has been used by the smart grid to achieve the optimal policy. Numerical results show that the proposed solution yields around 28% and 29% profit improvement on average for the smart grid, and the cloud providers, respectively, compared to the noncooperative scheme.

Global optimization of large-scale MIQCQPs via cluster decomposition: Application to short-term planning of an integrated refinery-petrochemical complex

Integrated refinery-petrochemical facilities are complex systems that require advanced decision-support tools for optimal short-term planning of their operations. The problem can be formulated as a mixed-integer quadratically constrained quadratic program (MIQCQP), in which discrete decisions select operating modes for the process units, while the entire process network is represented by input-output relationships based on bilinear expressions describing yields and stream properties, pooling equations, fuels blending indices and cost indicators. We develop a novel decomposition-based algorithm for deterministic global optimization that divides the network into small clusters according to their functionality. Inside each cluster, we derive a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) relaxation based on piecewise McCormick envelopes, dynamically partitioning the variables that belong to the cluster and reducing their domains through optimality-based bound tightening. Results for an industrial case study in Colombia show profit improvements above 10% and significantly reduced optimality gaps compared with the state-of-the-art global optimization solvers BARON and ANTIGONE.

AkzoNobel Shows Profitability Improvement for First Quarter despite COVID-19 Impacts

AkzoNobel Shows Profitability Improvement for First Quarter despite COVID-19 Impacts

Managing Service Systems via Disguised Queues: The Role of Retaliating Customers*

ABSTRACTTourist attractions, such as observatory decks, boat tours, and museums, have recently started to manage their operations via hiding some parts of their waiting lines, which we will refer to as queue disguising behavior. If customers are not aware of these disguised parts of the queues, firms can potentially boost their revenues by using queue disguising strategy. However, it is not obvious that firms benefit from disguised queues when customers retaliate after experiencing that the queue management tactics led them to make erroneous decisions. Our goal in this article is to investigate the impacts of the retaliatory customer behavior on firms' queue disguising decisions and profits. In the absence of retaliating customers, we find that the optimal queue disguising strategy yields only negligible profit improvements, relative to letting customers observe the entire waiting line. One, then, may expect that the queue disguising should not be a profitable strategy in a system with retaliating customers. We establish that this intuition is only true for firms incurring negligible holding costs. If keeping customers in the queue is sufficiently high for a firm, we, surprisingly, find that the firm achieves sizable profit improvements via queue disguising in the presence of the retaliatory behavior. More interestingly, we show that these benefits become more pronounced as the holding cost increases, in contrast to the case without retaliating customers. Our results, then, suggest that firms that are subjected to nonnegligible holding costs should employ the queue disguising strategy only while facing retaliating customers.

Evaluation of Rice Offal Meal Improved by Rumen Filtrate Fermentation on the Performance and Economics of Producing Table Rabbits

In an effort to expand the knowledge base on the use of non conventional feedstuff in rabbit nutrition, the nutritional potential and the cost effectiveness of using rice offal fermented with rumen filtrate for 48 hours was investigated using twenty five (25) growing crossbred rabbit bucks weighed between 625.34 g-631.21 g for 10 weeks. The rabbits were divided into five (5) treatment groups of five (5) rabbits each with each rabbit serving as a replicate in a completely randomized design experiment. The control group was fed with a diet containing maize as the main energy source while the remaining four groups were fed with diets in which the maize was replaced with 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% Rumen filtrate fermented-rice offal meals respectively. Final weight was similar (P>0.05) in rabbits fed maize-based control diet and those fed diet containing 5% to 20% Rumen Filtrate Fermented Rice Offal Meals (FRO). The experimental diets had significant (P<0.05) effect on the daily feed intake, and daily body weight gain with rabbits on 20% having superior weights of 93.88 g and 20.54 g respectively, and a better feed conversion ratio of 4.57 g. The cost of feed per kg of weight gain was lowered progressively from N446/kg for the control diet to N307/kg for the 20% FRO diet, where the lowest feed cost was observed, with a concomitant improvement in overall production profitability. It was concluded that fermenting rice offal with rumen filtrate had high potential as a possible replacement for maize in rabbit diet at inclusion levels of up to 20%. The use of this agricultural by-product can reduce the cost of rabbit production, increase the availability of cheaper animal protein for the populace, generate higher profit margins for the livestock farmer and reduce environmental pollution. It was therefore recommended that feed manufacturers and rabbit farmers can incorporate up to 20% of bovine rumen filtrate-fermented rice offal meal in the diets of rabbits without compromising performance.

Improvement in productivity and profitability of farmers through soil chiseling practices in wheat in Majha region of Indian Punjab

The present study has explored the integrative influence of soil chiseling practices on wheat yield and farmers’ profitability. The study was carried out in the farmers’ field during 2017-18 and 2018-19 of district Tarn Taran, a Majha region of Indian Punjab. The study involved ploughing of field with chiesler plough by recommended method prior to sowing of wheat crop. The results showed 10.8 and 8.8% increase in wheat yield over farmers’ practice during 2017-18 and 2018-19, respectively. The various growth indices registered a favourable improvement over farmers practice though they were statistically similar. Similarly, the net returns and B:C ratio increased significantly to the tune of 16.7 & 14.4 in 2017-18 and 8.8 & 7.8% in 2018-19, respectively. The magnitude of increase in production and monetary efficiencies over farmers’ practice were to the extent of 10.7 & 16.3 in 2017-18 and 8.9 & 14.2% in 2018-19, respectively. Above presentation revealed that soil chiseling improved the overall crop growth and productivity in comparison to general farmers’ practices not involving the same owing to favourable influence on soil permeability and allow the water to infiltrate in soil, improved aeration, root penetration and nutrient acquisition from deeper layers.

Cooperative Innovation in the Medical Supply Chain Based on User Feedback

Given the importance of users in medical innovation, positive user participation can boost the cooperative innovation process within the medical supply chain. A stochastic differential model based on user feedback is proposed to study the relationship between user feedback and the medical supply chain. The stability and sensitivity of the medical supply chain is analysed through different parameters. The results show that the effect of patient feedback and suggestions from hospitals on the innovation level of medical services and medical products is positive, such that the impact of the innovation level of medical services on users and the effect of patient feedback are positively related to marginal profits and that cooperative innovation is beneficial for medical product and service innovation and the improvement of demand and profits.

A heuristic approach to in-season capacity allocation in a multi-product newsvendor model

Based on an actual problem, we develop and test two heuristics for optimizing the newsvendor’s response to new in-season demand information for a multi-product single-period problem. In this model, in addition to the quantities produced prior to the beginning of the selling season, the newsvendor can produce additional quantities of some products after the selling season begins. Sales data of all products is updated daily, and using these updates, the newsvendor can test if the quantities already produced are still optimal. If the newsvendor finds that the actual demand of a product up to a point in time indicates that the quantity already produced is too small, then the product becomes a candidate for an incremental production quantity. In Heuristic I, we fix the pre-season production quantities to those that are optimal for the classic newsvendor model. In Heuristic II, because the newsvendor may have some recourse during the selling season, we allow for reductions in the pre-season production quantities from the optimal classic newsvendor model production quantities. Using a simulation experiment, we show that even under an unbiased forecast, both heuristics result in higher profit, with Heuristic II outperforming Heuristic I. The increase in profits from using the heuristics increases significantly with the number of products for which the forecast is biased. In addition, the improvements in profits decrease significantly as the lead time and the penalty for late production increase.

A review of corporate sustainability drivers in maritime ports: a multi-stakeholder perspective

ABSTRACT Maritime ports play a pivotal role in facilitating trade, serving as key nodes in global transport chains. Competitive pressure exists for port managers and operators to search for ways to deliver consistent improvements in productivity and profitability. Additionally, external effects associated with port activities have been given more attention in recent years, thus favouring a holistic integration of sustainability into port planning and operations. In this process, factors driving ports to become more sustainable need to be examined. This study, which is based on a systematic review of literature published since 1987, synthesizes various research perspectives for corporate sustainability drivers in maritime ports using the lens of stakeholder theory. Thirty drivers of corporate sustainability were identified, classified into 10 main drivers and further grouped into five clusters, serving as the basis for development of a multi-stakeholder perspective. This study also discusses examples of actions taken by ports in response to perspectives of various stakeholders using selected case examples from existing literature. This study provides an understanding of how decisions for adopting corporate sustainability are motivated in ports according to a multi-stakeholder perspective, and highlights how ports have responded to shifts through developing and implementing sustainability strategies using global case examples.