Strategic Criteria Research Articles

Resilience Analytics with Application to Power Grid of a Developing Region

Infrastructure development of volatile regions is a significant investment by international government and nongovernment organizations, with attendant requirements for risk management. Global development banks may be tasked to manage these investments and provide a channel between donors and borrowers. Moreover, various stakeholders from the private sector, local and international agencies, and the military can be engaged in conception, planning, and implementation of constituent projects. Emergent and future conditions of military conflict, politics, economics, technology, environment, behaviors, institutions, and society that stress infrastructure development are prevalent, and funding mechanisms are vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse. This article will apply resilience analytics with scenario-based preferences to identify the stressors that most influence a prioritization of initiatives in the electric power sector of Afghanistan. The resilience in this article is conceived in terms of the degree of disruption of priorities when stressors influence the preferences of stakeholders, and ultimately a prioritization of initiatives. The ancillary results include an understanding of which initiatives contribute most and least across strategic criteria and which criteria have the most impact for the analysis. The article concludes with recommendations for risk monitoring and risk management of the portfolio of stressors through the life cycle and horizon of grid capacity expansion.

Selection of Reverse Logistics activities using an ANP-BOCR model

The Reverse Logistics (RL) activities are gaining importance in Brazilian companies. However, a relevant problem is to select RL activities using criteria of immediate and long-term effects for the organization. These situations can be treated as being Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM). In this work we adopted the Analytic Network Process (ANP) as the analytical technique of a MCDM problem that can be formulated when we have interest in to identify existing relationships between RL activities. The strategic criteria were included into the model to rate benefits (B), opportunities (O), cost (C) and risks (R). Here we present an analysis of sustainable practices identified in publishing companies, operating in Brazil. The results indicated that ANP-BOCR is an adequate method to select alternatives RL

SISTEM PENUNJANG KEPUTUSAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE AHP ( ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS) DALAM MENENTUKAN PRIORITAS STRATEGI PENCARIAN MAHASISWA BARU PADA UNIVERSITAS EKASAKTI PADANG

High competition among private universities to absorb more stringent student interest at the moment. Various strategies do be done in order to get the number of students as much as possible. But sometimes the strategy undertaken not to deliver the result expected. Doing a lot of new search strategies by university students do not warrant able to increase the number of students, because not all of these strategies effectively so that should be a priority election strategy. This research was conducted to develop a decision support system that can help decision makers in determining an appropriate strategy prioritized in an effort to increase the number of new students. Decision Support System (Decision Support System) have decision-making techniques known as AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) to determine a priority choice that has many criteria. In this study, data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 200 students from 21 existing studies program at the University Ekasakti Padang. The results of the questionnaires were analyzed and converted algorithm in matrix form are then run on AHP applications that generate output that meets the strategic priority decision criteria have been determined, which is the most effective strategy to absorb a lot of new students.

Building Knowledge: The Concept of Care

Aim and Objectives: The aim of this article is to explore whether the specific levels of caring described in Swanson’s Middle Range Caring Theory which include characteristics of caring, people’s concerns and commitments underlying caring, conditions that enhance/inhibit caring and consequences of caring and non-caring could be used in categorizing findings from two literature reviews investigating the concept of care. Background: Nursing has a long legacy as a caring/healing profession where caring is increasingly posited as one of the core concepts in modern nursing science. However, the meanings given to the concept of care remain elusive, ambiguous and unclear. Design: Two systematic literature reviews. Method: Twenty-nine articles based on strategic inclusion and exclusion criteria were synthesized. Data was retrieved from CINAHL, Medline, Embase and PsycInfo covering the period 2003-2016. The literature search used the key words care, concept analysis, systematic review, meta-synthesis, meta-analysis and narrative review. Results: Major themes found were related to the following characteristics of caring persons: compassionate, knowledgeable, positive and reflective. Concerns and commitments underlying caring were doing the right thing, connecting, focusing on the others’ experience, acknowledging individual dignity and worth and being present. Conditions that enhanced/inhibited caring were situational constraints, personality traits, communication skills, health problems and organizational features. Consequences of caring and non-caring actions included both positive and negative emotional, spiritual, physical, and social outcomes for patients, families and nurses. Conclusion: The specific levels of caring described in Swanson’s Middle Range Caring Theory are highly suitable for categorizing the findings from three literature reviews on the concept of care. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Swanson’s Middle Range Caring Theory can be used to guide clinical practice and encourage an individual approach to care. It has been shown to contain clear, comprehensible language in its theoretical basis; this encourages use in clinical practice.

Alternatives to transport support for development of Russia’s Arctic shelf

Based on a case study of the problem of transport support for resource extraction on Russia’s Arctic shelf, an approach is described and implemented to select an expedient strategy for solving weak structurization problems under the conditions of an uncertain scenario. To structurize the problem, a goal tree is constructed and scenarios and strategies are described. The scenarios indicate possible conditions of the external environment in which the problem is solved. The strategies differ in the ways cargoes are shipped: primarily by sea (Northern Sea Route) or by Siberian rivers. It is shown that the Transpolar Railway is necessary for any strategy. The authors have developed a technique and software for collecting and processing expert information, which is used to construct numerical estimates of the significance of goals. This method also allows us to estimate the degrees of achievement of a general goal as a result of using each strategy under the conditions of each scenario; these estimates are entered into the evaluation matrix. An expedient strategy is chosen according to the evaluation matrix with the help of strategic criteria (Laplace, Wald, Hurwitz, and Savage).

Avitourism and Australian Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas.

Formal protected areas will not provide adequate protection to conserve all biodiversity, and are not always designated using systematic or strategic criteria. Using a systematic process, the Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) network was designed to highlight areas of conservation significance for birds (i.e. IBA trigger species), and more recently general biodiversity. Land use activities that take place in IBAs are diverse, including consumptive and non-consumptive activities. Avitourism in Australia, generally a non-consumptive activity, is reliant on the IBA network and the birds IBAs aim to protect. However, companies tend not to mention IBAs in their marketing. Furthermore, avitourism, like other nature-based tourism has the potential to be both a threatening process as well as a conservation tool. We aimed to assess the current use of IBAs among Australian-based avitour companies’ marketing, giving some indication of which IBAs are visited by avitourists on organised tours. We reviewed online avitour itineraries, recorded sites featuring in descriptions of avitours and which IBA trigger species are used to sell those tours. Of the 209 avitours reviewed, Queensland is the most featured state (n = 59 tours), and 73% feature at least one IBA. Daintree (n = 22) and Bruny Island (n = 17) IBAs are the most popular, nationally. Trigger species represent 34% (n = 254 out of 747) of species used in avitour descriptions. The most popular trigger species’ are wetland species including; Brolga (n = 37), Black-necked Stork (n = 30) and Magpie Goose (n = 27). Opportunities exist to increase collaboration between avitour companies and IBA stakeholders. Our results can provide guidance for managing sustainability of the avitourism industry at sites that feature heavily in avitour descriptions and enhance potential cooperation between avitour companies, IBA stakeholders and bird conservation organisations.

Modeling Strategic Optimization Criteria in Spatial Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Modeling Strategic Optimization Criteria in Spatial Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Strategic purchasing participation, supplier selection, supplier evaluation and purchasing performance

In this article, we examine how purchasing’s strategic participation influences supply management activities via the choice of appropriate operational and strategic criteria. Specifically, the study focuses on supplier selection and monitoring ongoing supplier performance evaluation based on operational and strategic criteria. A combination of choosing appropriate supplier selection criteria and monitoring supplier performance ensures that the benefits of purchasing’s participation in strategic planning translate into better purchasing performance of cost, quality, delivery, flexibility and innovation. We test the hypotheses using survey data collected from manufacturing companies in the US by means of a path model. Our results provide support for the tenet that purchasing’s participation in strategic planning influences purchasing performance directly as well as through the mediating effects of supplier selection criteria and supplier performance evaluation. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings and propose directions for further research.

Choosing the best city of the future

This paper describes various possibilities of the cities of futures considering various constraints and demand of society, environment and geography. The need for future cities arises because of the rapid growth in population and thereby causing a decline in the living standards. In the United States itself, many people are moving to cities every day. Today cities are getting crowded and if the influx continues at the same rate, current cities will become unmanageable and unlivable.More population means faster consumption of natural resources which eventually leads to ecological imbalance. Already more than 80% of world׳s forests are gone. The food consumption has also doubled over the last fifty years and this has exerted pressure on the landscape through the use of artificial fertilizers. The use of artificial agents to boost agricultural productivity has significantly marred the flora and fauna leading to loss of a huge amount of bio diversity.Another problem with the increasing population and population migration to cities is the rise of congestion on the city roads. In the United States a person drives 7500 miles in 1600h with an a average speed of 4.68mph. To accommodate the population approximately 2000 trees are cut in a minute in the Amazon alone.On top of all that, with increasing wealth the average house size has almost doubled since 1970 and this has further caused the decline of arable land and forests. To deal with the problem of rising population and congestion within the cities, we need to plan cities of the future that will be able to utilize the available resources in a more efficient and cleaner manner. The future city project aims to delve into details of various future city models and aims to find out which model will be best suitable depending upon the strategic criteria that we have used to evaluate the various merits of the BOCR model.The four alternative kinds of cities are analyzed below according to their merits. They are A. Compact City, B. Elevated City, C. Green House City, and D. Water City.

A fuzzy multi-criteria decision support system for evaluating subsea oil pipeline routing criteria in East Malaysia

Selecting suitable pipeline routes is essential to the success of any oil exploration and transportation project, and proper prioritization of the diverse routing criteria is an integral component of the route selection endeavor. However, recent researches reveal that accurate prioritization of routing criteria, particularly in an offshore/subsea environment, has not been sufficiently addressed. With global attention rapidly expanding from terrestrial exploration to offshore and subsea oil pipeline operations, this study addresses the offshore pipeline routing ranking concerns. A hybrid multi-criteria decision support system was developed by integrating fuzzy logic-based approximate reasoning (AR) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) mathematical models. Twelve diverse criteria and sub-criteria in an oil-rich basin offshore east Malaysia were examined to determine their impact in the selection of an optimal pipeline route in the area. These were subsequently classified into three broad categories: economic, engineering, and environmental routing criteria. The integrated system (AR-AHP) was used to determine the relative importance of the criteria using different fuzzy membership functions and linguistic variables. Final results showed that the environmental criteria in the study area have the highest aggregated priority and influence (61.4 %) followed by the engineering criteria (27.6 %) and the economic criteria (11 %) datasets, respectively. This study thus establishes the fact that preservation of environmental factors is superior to the other strategic criteria in the marine study area.

Альтернативы транспортного обеспечения освоения арктического шельфа России

Using the problems of transport support of resource extraction in Russia’s Arctic shelf as an example, there is explained and implemented an approach to selecting an appropriate strategy to solve a semistructured problem under the uncertainty of the scenario. To structure the problem, a tree of objectives is drawn, scenarios and strategies are described. Scenarios indicate possible states of the environment where the problem is solved. Strategies differ in ways of transportation: mainly by sea (the Northern Sea Route) or Siberian rivers. It is shown that the construction of the Transpolar mainline is necessary for all the strategies. The authors have developed and implemented in software a method for collecting and processing expert data used to estimate numerically the importance of objectives. Following the same method, one evaluates the degrees of how the general objective of each strategy is achieved under each scenario included in the evaluation matrix. The appropriate strategy is selected according to the evaluation matrix with the help of strategic criteria (Laplace, Wald, Hurwitz and Savage)

Poverty as epistemic object of government: State cognitive equipment and social science operations

This article studies the interrelation of the epistemic dimension of the State with the operation of social science embedded in institutional spaces of government and its effects on the process of production of social-science knowledge, conditioning its decisions. The reported study is based on the process of poverty measurement as conducted by the Chilean government. In this process, poverty appears as an object created and used not only as a scientific object of academic inquiry, but simultaneously as an epistemic object of government constituted by the State, and used for regulatory interventions. The research developed shows that there are many points of ambiguity in the decisions required for the construction of poverty, in which purely scientific or technical criteria are insufficient for decision-making and are supplemented by tactical or strategic criteria of government.

Strategic vendor selection criteria discussed in relation to demand and supply perspectives

Vendor selection (VS) is a decision-making problem involving strategic management. In the VS approach, criteria and importance weights must be carefully selected to meet supply chain competitive strategies. Most existing VS models use buying-firm’s perspectives for VS criteria formulation. This study examines the demand and supply views of 108 valid respondents regarding the importance weights of VS criteria under four operations strategies. The multinomial probability distribution analysis and variance weighting method are employed to categorize the individual relative importance weights. This study derives exploratory explanations by conducting in-depth interviews with 12 functional managers focusing on their divergent perspectives on importance weighting of VS criteria. This study also discusses the derived applications of Herzberg’s two-factor theory, supplier integration, and the operating philosophy of total quality management to mitigate the influences of the widely used explicit operational criteria in existing VS models. Finally, this study provides recommendations for future research on VS.

Prioritization of renewable energy sources for Turkey by using a hybrid MCDM methodology

Developing countries such as Turkey, with their fast growing population and economy, are facing an increasing demand for energy. Turkey does not possess a sufficient quantity of domestic oil and natural gas resources to support this growing demand. On the other hand, the country does have abundant reserves of renewable energy that can be a major component in providing part of the overall energy supply. The country plans to explore its renewable energy (RE) sources and increase the renewable energy share in near future. With this in mind, this paper proposes a hybrid model based on BOCR (Benefits, Opportunities, Costs and Risks) and ANP (Analytic Network Process) to determine Turkey’s energy status and prioritize alternative RE sources. BOCR analysis provides a strategic analysis and detailed overview of the country’s energy issues. ANP is a practical multi criteria decision making (MCDM) method and offers the advantages of decision making models, based on tangible and intangible factors. 19 criteria are used to evaluate five alternative RE sources (Hydro, Geothermal, Solar, Wind and Biomass). The subsequent results show that the most important strategic criterion is economy; other criteria include security, human wellbeing, technology and global effects. Their weights are 0.485, 0.235, 0.130, 0.097 and 0.053, respectively. In the conclusion of this paper, the authors propose hydro power as the optimal RE source for the country.

APPLICATION OF A SWOT-FANP METHOD

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is an effective strategic planning tool for the development of strategy formulation, but its main weakness is being incapable of quantitatively determining the weights and effects of alternative strategic criteria. Some studies’ use of SWOT with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) would enable decision-makers to obtain-through pairwise comparisons-a relative priority of each criterion, so that the results from quantitative measures could overcome SWOT's central shortcoming. However, these studies neglect critical relationships or dependencies among SWOT factors. In this study, I propose a quantitative SWOT that rests on fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) methodology, includes possible dependencies among SWOT factors and permits the elimination of decision-makers’ uncertain and vague preferences. To this end, I chose the Taiwan biotech pharmaceutical industry as an illustrative example. This study demonstrates and validates that such an enhanced methodology is viable and highly capable of providing enriched insights regarding strategic decision-making management in complex real-world situations.

Sustainable Forest Management in a Mediterranean region: Social preferences

Aim of study: There is a lack of empirical research that deals with sustainable forest management in Mediterranean regions, among the most vulnerable ecosystems. The main purpose of this work is to define the strategic criteria and objectives for sustainable forest management and aggregate the preferences of stakeholders in a Mediterranean region, using AHP and Goal Programming.Area of study: Valencian Community (Spain).Material and Methods: Firstly, we identified forest stakeholders and structured a decision hierarchy. Then a workshop was carried out to test and validate the proposed criteria and objectives, as well as a survey to determine social preferences. Secondly, another survey was conducted amongst experts to prioritize action plans.Main results: Stakeholders’ preferences gave the greatest importance to the environmental criteria (hydrological regulation and erosion, climate change mitigation and biodiversity) with an average weight of 40%. Social criteria (employment, recreational activities and landscape) had a weight of 38% and 22% the economic criteria case (wood, hunting and fishing, livestock, renewable energies, rural tourism and mining). The results showed that new products and services such as tourism, renewable energies, landscape, hydrological regulation and erosion control, biodiversity or climate change mitigation are very relevant objectives. We also prioritized action plans comparing them with the distribution of the administration budget.Research highlights: The environmental and social criteria are much more important than the economic ones in the regional planning of the Mediterranean forest, regardless of the method used to aggregate the social preferences and if the forest is public or private.Key words: Multiple Criteria Decision Making; Goal Programming; Analytic Hierarchy Process; Preferences Aggregation.

BIPV in the Refurbishment of Minor Historical Centres: The Project of Integrability between Standard and Customized Technology

The proposed research is aimed to define some BIPV (building integrated photovoltaics) paradigms for the refurbishment of historical contexts, by defining strategic criteria related to linguistic-architectural and technological-constructive aspects of solar systems (including case-studies in specific application contexts). This research could, once perfected and shared, be used within operative tools (guidelines, case studies, etc.) really applicable to common scale, e.g., in today’s post-earthquake reconstruction in L’Aquila, for defining possible solar implementation possibilities in sensitive areas according to an innovative and sustainable method of intervention.

Influência da Gestão Estratégica de Portfólios de Projetos no Desenvolvimento Tecnológico

Este trabalho visa apresentar um estudo de caso de uma empresa multinacional do segmento da construção civil e móveis que há três anos implementou uma área de gestão de portfólio de projetos com o objetivo de utilizar critérios estratégicos para selecionar projetos e contribuir com o desenvolvimento tecnológico da empresa. A metodologia desse relato foi fundamentada no quadro teórico de Castro e Carvalho para analisar os processos de implantação e ferramentas utilizadas pela gestão de portfólio. O resultado dessa implantação contribuiu para a seleção de projetos de desenvolvimento tecnológico e aumentou a competitividade da empresa que se tornou uma das líderes do setor.DOI:10.5585/gep.v4i2.142

A Tract Reflection on Challenges in Research & Development for New Product Development in the Industrial Sector of Pakistan

New Product Development (NPD) is a strategic issue of successful business in the competitive era of the new global economy. Pakistan is relatively small, in the Asian region, yet a promising nation in the South East Asian region. Unfortunately, over the past few decades, the country’s export performance has remained sluggish due to slower growth of NPD in her industrial sector. The present study conceptually examines the issue of challenges and remedial strategies involved in the context of R & D in the process of NPD in Pakistani industries at-large. Indeed, textile industry is currently a major segment (46%) of the Pakistani industrial sector. In general, the focus of the study is on NPD strategic criteria of the nation. The study discusses global and inward challenges and spells out the steps in formulating a new strategy towards NPD. Pakistan policy makers need to identify and focus on policies towards improvement of FDI inflows, industrial education, technology advancement, R &D budget, and establishing the industrial cluster among several other factors as building blocks of the NDP.

Transbranding based on media expansion and change

Background With the emergence of constantly changing media and the importance placed on interconnectivity from the context of new social cultural paradigms, it is now critical to understand, anticipate and manage the phenomena of change. This study examines the phenomena of change in the expansion and evolution of the media environment through the new concept of “transing” and proposes “transbranding” as an effective strategic method for future corporate brand management. This paper further suggests that transbranding can become the new standard for Branding 2.0 to enable corporations and brands to overcome the chaos and uncertainty that is representative of the current marketing environment to achieve a more dynamic style brand management. Methods An empirical study was conducted to analyze relevant case studies in order to project the appropriate conceptual and strategic implications for transbranding. In order to develop a systematic framework for transbranding, theoretical research related to transing, transmarketing and transmedia was initiated to establish an operational structure for corporate brand management. Some of the key studies that were referenced to formulate a road map for transbranding included Slywotzky & Morrison(2000)’s Digital Business Design(DDB) matrix which formed the basis to create key components and future usability of transmedia. In addition, using the 2012 brand valuation ranking by Interbrand, the study chose top ranked global companies such as Coca-Cola, Google and IKEA for an empirical case analysis of their current transbranding capabilities. An analytical tool Transmedia Mix was used to measure four attributes: Evolution Interaction(EI), Collaborative Creation(CC), Systematic Multi-experience(SM), Sustainable Identity(SI) to evaluate the relevant brand design criteria for assessing the Style Management(SM) components in establishing a 2F(Flexible Fit) strategy. Results As for the key findings of the empirical research using the transmedia mix model, Coca-Cola, Google and Ikea were all found to have maintained unique brand values that reflected both the dynamic and participatory characteristics of transbranding. Although there were some slight differences in the effectiveness between the three companies upon analyzing the transbranding strategic criteria, there were overall high marks for both transmedia and brand design and clear indications that efficient usage projected a distinctive brand image. In addition, it was found that effective transbranding could be achieved when companies successfully adapt a balanced combination of the four components of transmedia mix strategy to effectively produce an extended 2F(Flexible Fit) system that can enable a coherent brand experience to enhance the key values of the companies. Conclusion In closing, it is predicted that the future role of transbranding will become more relevant as media continues to expand and evolve. As a new approach to branding will be necessitated to encompass the extended variables that include media, business, and design technology, a transdisciplinary method can become a viable alternative solution. Thus, the proper style management implementation for transmedia strategies can better communicate the experiential aspirations of the modern consumer. Furthermore, successful transbranding can be better realized with an effective brand system implementation of the 2F strategy that is integrated with the evolving technological elements of changing design media.