Successful Bid Research Articles

A grey literature review of the Cultural Olympiad

This article considers the development of the UK Cultural Olympiad supporting London's successful bid to stage the Olympic Games in 2012. It suggests that the Cultural Olympiad is a complex event itself and needs to be better understood if any impacts are to be felt in a meaningful sense. The event is thus considered through review of over 50 documents relating to its management, in the context of a number of identified themes: cultural development, developing institutional frameworks, social benefit, educational benefit and promotional benefit.

A conservation auction for landscape linkage in the southern Desert Uplands, Queensland

Conservation auctions are a type of market-based instrument (MBI) that can achieve a more cost-efficient allocation of public funds than approaches such as devolved grants. In this paper, the conduct of a multiple round conservation auction to improve biodiversity management in a rangelands area is outlined. The auction was designed to develop a wildlife corridor across the southern Desert Uplands bioregion in Queensland and to improve management of rangelands areas. The conservation auction incorporated two important new design features. First, there was a need to promote landholder cooperation so that proposed areas for better land management were aligned and connected across the region. The second innovative design feature was to hold multiple bidding (three) rounds, which differs from the standard application of a single bidding round. The auction outcomes resulted in conservation contracts covering 85 000 ha of remnant vegetation awarded at an average cost of $2* per hectare per annum. Although complete landscape connectivity across the Desert Uplands was not achieved, over 70% of the successful bids, accounting for over 62 000 ha (77% of the total bid area), were part of a group that formed a distinct corridor or landscape linkage with only single or part-property gaps. The results also indicate that multiple bidding rounds improved auction efficiency (for the government), although there was little improvement in connectivity. Sixty-six percent more environmental benefit units could be purchased for the given budget of $350 000 between rounds one and three.

Evaluation of the City and Guilds Level 3 Adult 8umeracy Support Course at Merton College in the UK

This paper looks at the evaluation of the Level 3 Certificate in Adult Numeracy Support (City and Guilds 9484) course at Merton College. The latter is a general further education (FE) college and the main provider of post-16 education and training in the London Borough of Merton. The College also runs a number of higher education (HE) courses. The course was introduced into the School of Community Education following the college's successful bid to run a Level 3 course in numeracy in partnership with other colleges in the South London learning Partnership. The main objective of the evaluation of the course at Merton College was to find out how the course measured up to the standards specified by the DfES/FENTO Subject Specifications and echoed by City and Guilds in the Course handbook (City and Guilds, 2005) as well as the procedures specified in the Merton College College's Quality Assurance system. It was clear that the team was faced with challenges in understanding the level of the mathematics content required, and of linking this with strategies, methods and skills to teach adult numeracy learners. One critical observation the author made was the team's inability to change the course structure and content to suit the needs of the candidates. One other limitation of the course was the absence of information and computer technology use. Candidates were not introduced to adequate use of information and computer technology (ICT) as part of their learning. The author observes further that initial teacher education is a complex combination of knowledge as it requires specialist knowledge but at the same time much depends on experience and learning on the job. There is little doubt that the lack of thorough and systematic support for trainees in the place of teaching is a profound systemic weakness that impoverishes all teacher education programmes, not just those discussed in this paper African Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics and Sciences Vol. 5 2007: pp. 49-60

First, Do No Harm

First, Do No Harm

A winning formula: Grant-making workshops

Angela Youngman explains how your school could get help in decoding the application process and making a successful bid.

A method to estimate block values through competitive bidding

The bidding process is a mechanism that has been widely used by different countries to optimally distribute their oil exploratory acreages. One of the big challenges for both companies and government agencies is the estimation of the block values. Considering that the bid value is by and large a fraction of the estimated unknown reserve, the objective of this article is to reach a set of proxies of unknown values of the blocks through the successful bids. The estimation value of the block is calculated through a stochastic simulation of bid fractions using a compound probability distribution. The model was tested and validated using the public data available from the Brazilian seven licensing rounds. For these competitive bids, areas widespread in 22 sedimentary basins were offered to more than 50 oil companies that retained 610 blocks, paying $1.4 billion as a cash bonus. The model output was restricted to the Campos Basin because it is one of the most attractive areas for oil and gas opportunities, concentrating approximately 80% of the Brazilian national oil production with a supply of 1.8 million bbl/day. The simulation model indicated that this approach can be used as an auxiliary decision framework by oil companies for new investments and bidding strategies as well as by the regulatory agency to evaluate bid performance in different world regions and geological settings possessing similar competitive bidding schemes.

Case—Bidding on Priceline

Bidding on Priceline A student wants to travel to New York. He has purchased his airline ticket and is starting to schedule his three-day trip. First, he thinks he should rent a car at the airport. His friends give him two suggestions: (1) go to www.priceline.com to “name his own price,” (2) go to a traditional car rental agency website such as www.hertz.com. Priceline.com is an Internet-based corporation offering serviced-based products such as airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and home mortgages. For its rental car services, Priceline provides a wide array of car types from categories such as economy, standard, and full-sized cars. Once you are on Priceline.com and have selected Rental Cars from the option button, the procedure for bidding on this site is as follows (Figure 1): 1. You choose the type of place where you want to rent a car, the pick-up city, and the pick-up and drop-off date and time. 2. You then enter the flight information, driver information, and (most importantly) name your own price for renting this particular type of car (Figure 2). 3. If you offer an extremely low price, Priceline will inform that your offer is not likely to be accepted by any agency and provide suggestions about how much to bid in order to get the car. You are allowed to bid only once for each type of car, which means you have to be careful about the amount of money you bid, potentially paying full rate if not successful (Figure 3). 4. Whether you follow this suggestion or not, Priceline will process your request as you go to the next step and let you enter personal identification and credit card information. 5. You will be notified if your offer is accepted within one hour. There are two possible results: either you can rent the car at the price you named or your offer is rejected and you cannot bid on this car class again for this particular arrival/drop-off combination. When the bidder offers a low bid Priceline will provide some insight into potentially more successful bids without offering specific information. For example, Figures 4 and 5 are Priceline suggestions offered after a user enters very low bids for standard and full-sized cars. An alternative option is to go to www.hertz.com to make a reservation for renting the car. Figure 6 is a price quote from Hertz.com offered on the same date as the bids on Priceline.com in Figures 4 and 5. Now there are two options for our would-be traveler—he can either bid on Priceline.com or make a reservation on Hertz.com. Given his student status, he wants to spend as little money as possible. Obviously, he should try Priceline.com first, since it gives him a chance (without any cost except time) of renting a car at a very low price. He is traveling alone with very little luggage so it won’t make much difference whether he chooses an economy, standard, or full-sized car. Since he gets only one chance to bid for each type of car, he needs to work out a solution so that he can take the maximum advantage of Priceline.com. As a final thought he wonders if he can extract any information from failed bids, i.e. if his first bid is unsuccessful, how should he alter his subsequent bids?

Examining the use of bid information in predicting the contractor's performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the use of bid information, including both price and non‐price factors in predicting the bidder's performance.Design/methodology/approachThe practice of the industry was first reviewed. Data on bid evaluation and performance records of the successful bids were then obtained from the Hong Kong Housing Department, the largest housing provider in Hong Kong. This was followed by the development of a radial basis function (RBF) neural network based performance prediction model.FindingsIt is found that public clients are more conscientious and include non‐price factors in their bid evaluation equations. With the input variables used the information is available at the time of the bid and the output variable is the project performance score recorded during work in progress achieved by the successful bidder. It was found that past project performance score is the most sensitive input variable in predicting future performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper shows the inadequacy of using price alone for bid award criterion. The need for a systemic performance evaluation is also highlighted, as this information is highly instrumental for subsequent bid evaluations. The caveat for this study is that the prediction model was developed based on data obtained from one single source.Originality/valueThe value of the paper is in the use of an RBF neural network as the prediction tool because it can model non‐linear function. This capability avoids tedious “trial and error” in deciding the number of hidden layers to be used in the network model.

A comparative analysis of tender sums and final costs of public construction and supply projects in Nigeria

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between tender figures, consultants' figures and final construction costs of construction projects under competitive bidding in the Nigerian construction industry, as guided by the due process policy, a national public procurement reform program.Design/methodology/approachA total of 13 construction professionals and public contract administrators were interviewed. Their views were reported intermittently as the secondary data collected on 137 projects; 95 of these were construction and 42 supply projects. The findings are then analyzed and discussed.FindingsThe study presents a number of regression models which can be used to predict the final cost and actual duration of construction and supply projects under the due process regime in Nigeria as functions of lowest bids, consultant estimates, successful bid, gross floor area, average bid, contractor's proposed contract duration and the consultant's proposed contract duration.Practical implicationsThe models used, apart from being worthy benchmarks for future study, can be of immense use to developing countries with the intention of implementing the due process policy of Nigeria in their countries as the limitations of the reform are succinctly discussed. Moreover, with the growing prospect for heavy engineering projects, the study will be of use to intending international contractors willing to explore the Nigerian construction market, either by holistic participation or by forming partnerships or alliances with Nigerian domestic firms.Originality/valueThe paper presents one of the pioneering stochastic studies based on empirical data on construction and supply projects under the due process reform in Nigeria.

Prologue: Beijing 2008 – The Mixed Messages of Contemporary Chinese Nationalism

Within China, Beijing's successful bid to host the 2008 Olympics has been celebrated as proof of the country's confident resurgence in world politics and culture. Chinese analysts have seized upon the Olympic Movement's stated universalistic aim of ‘promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity’ to underline the benignity of China's own ‘peaceful rise’; to assert that China's new power and influence will be a force for international harmony rather than of partisan nationalism. Closer examination of Chinese discussions of the Beijing Olympics, and of the history of Chinese nationalism, however, indicates that contemporary China's reassertion of a globally dominant position is a less straightforwardly saccharine enterprise than official rhetoric would have us believe. Taking as its starting point an examination of public discussion (in academic and mass media) of the forthcoming Games, this article will place China's Olympic and global aspirations in the broader context of China's imperial and modern history. It will analyse China's powerful yearning for the Olympics as the latest phase in the country's troubled national quest over the past century to recover a central position in the international political, economic and cultural realm.

Connected Care in Hartlepool Re‐visited: Can a Holistic and Community‐ Centred Approach Survive Implementation?

This article is the second which the Journal of Integrated Care has published about the Hartlepool connected care pilot. It takes up the narrative from the launch of the community audit report in February 2006 to the project's successful bid to become one of the 26 DoH social enterprise pilots some 12 months later. It seeks to understand the barriers encountered as the pilot sought to implement a service model based on an audit of local needs and ambitions. It identifies the need for support outside the local policy systems if holistic, community‐based initiatives are to be initiated and implemented. In addition, it considers some of the implementation dilemmas that the pilot posed for local agencies and that it had itself to face and resolve during this second phase in its development.

Tacit Collusion in Repeated Auctions

The paper by Andreas Blume and Paul Heidhues (Blume and Heidhues [2008]) provides an important and valuable contribution to the analysis of coordinated behaviour in repeated auctions. The problem is interesting in that submission cartels are often observed in the context of auctions that take place repeatedly. Further, the paper is of theoretical interest. It deals with the problem of tacit collusion in the sense that the bidders succeed in coordinating their behaviour and thus obtain higher payoffs, without explicit communication or agreements. I address three aspects of the paper. First, I have some comments concerning the framework of the model. Second, I discuss a critical assumption of the model, namely that the auctioneer does not anticipate the bidders' expected behaviour in the design of the auction. It might be a good idea to model the person who is responsible for the auction design as a strategic player too. Finally, I provide some comments on alternative applications of the model, such as collusive equilibria in general oligopoly models. The main purpose of the paper is to analyse how the bidders in a repeated auction may reduce their strategic uncertainty that results from the assumption that explicit communication is not possible. In the first round of a repeated auction, the bidders find themselves in an entirely symmetric situation. Since it is explicitly assumed that there is no possibility of communicating, public information can be generated only by the outcome of the auction itself. That is, at the end of the first round of the repeated auction, the first successful bid gives rise to a symmetry break, since the winner of the auction is identified, and thereby receives a name. Now the repeated nature of the auction generates a sequence of winners. The bidders are thus identified by their first successful bid. The bidders are able to use this public information in order to achieve higher payoffs. The strategies that provide the players with higher payoffs are divided into three phases. In the first phase, the so-called naming phase, the players are identified. That is, the sequence of winners generates public information. The second phase, the rewarding phase, creates incentives for the bidders to go through the naming

Comment on “Gender Differences in Research Grant Applications and Funding Outcomes for Medical School Faculty”

Journal of Women's HealthVol. 17, No. 2 EDITORIALComment on “Gender Differences in Research Grant Applications and Funding Outcomes for Medical School Faculty”Lotte BailynLotte BailynSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:5 Mar 2008https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2007.0755AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail "Comment on “Gender Differences in Research Grant Applications and Funding Outcomes for Medical School Faculty”." , 17(2), pp. 303–304FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited by‘Unless you are collaborating with a big name successful professor, you are unlikely to receive funding’6 October 2015 | Gender and Education, Vol. 28, No. 5Features of successful bids for funding of applied health research: a cohort study22 September 2014 | Health Research Policy and Systems, Vol. 12, No. 1 Volume 17Issue 2Mar 2008 Information© 2008 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.To cite this article:Lotte Bailyn.Comment on “Gender Differences in Research Grant Applications and Funding Outcomes for Medical School Faculty”.Journal of Women's Health.Mar 2008.303-304.http://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2007.0755Published in Volume: 17 Issue 2: March 5, 2008PDF download

Developmentally delayed children's influence attempts with mothers predict interactions with peers over time

We examined whether influence attempts of 4–6 year-old children with mild developmental delays occurring when interacting with their mothers predicted children's interactions with peers two years later. Hierarchical regressions controlling for relevant child characteristics and a measure of direct parental actions to influence their children's peer interactions revealed a consistent association between influence attempts with mothers and four important aspects of children's peer relationships: successful social bids to peers, initiations to peers, extent of involvement with peers, and overall level of peer interactions. Results were consistent with social communicative processes likely to emerge during children's influence attempts with mothers, which are relevant to peer relationships. The fact that influence attempts with mothers were associated with peer interactions over a time period when peers occupy a more dominant role in children's social relationships supports the role of indirect family influences as a potential intervention strategy to further the peer competence of children with delays.

The Shifting Balance of Power between Shareholders and the Board: News Corp's Exodus to Delaware and Other Antipodean Tales

NOTE: research in this Working Paper was subsequently published in the form of the following articles: (i) Jennifer G. Hill, Subverting Shareholder Rights: Lessons from News Corp's Migration to Delaware, 63 Vand. L. Rev. 1-51 (2010) (available at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1541644) (examining News Corp's shift in domicile from Australia to the United States as a case study, or natural experiment, to assess fundamental differences in traditional shareholder rights in the US, compared to other common law jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom and Australia. article also explores the lessons of News Corp's reincorporation for current US reforms increasing shareholder rights, and for the anti-reform claim that if shareholder empowerment were efficient, it would already have existed in the marketplace). (ii) Jennifer G. Hill, The Rising Tension Between Shareholder and Director Power in the Common Law World, 2010, 18 Corporate Governance: An International Review, pp. 344-359 (2010) special issue on Shareholder Activism (available at http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1582258) (examining key arguments in the US shareholder empowerment debate, and the increasing tension between shareholder and director power in common law jurisdications). balance of power between shareholders and the board of directors is a contentious issue in current corporate law debate. It also lay at the heart of a controversy concerning the re-incorporation of News Corporation (News Corp) in Delaware. News Corp has recently been the subject of intense media attention due its successful bid to acquire Dow Jones & Company. Nonetheless, News Corp's move to the US, which paved the way for this victory, was neither smooth nor a fait accompli. Rather, the original 2004 re-incorporation proposal prompted a revolt by a number of institutional investors, on the basis that a move to Delaware would strengthen managerial power vis-a-vis shareholder power. institutional investors were particularly concerned about the effect of the re-incorporation on shareholder participatory rights, and the ability of the board of directors to adopt anti-takeover mechanisms, such as poison pills, which are not permissible under Australian law. It was this latter concern, which ultimately led a group of institutional investors to commence legal proceedings in the Delaware Chancery Court in UniSuper Ltd v News Corporation (2005 WL 3529317 (Del Ch)). News Corp re-incorporation saga highlights a number of important differences between US and Australian corporate law rules relating to shareholder rights, and provides a valuable comparative law counterpoint to the recent US shareholder empowerment debate. Other recent Australian commercial developments discussed in the article show a tension between legal rules designed to enhance shareholder power, and commercial practices designed to readjust power in favor of the board of directors. These developments are interesting because they demonstrate how some Australian companies have tried to create a de facto corporate governance regime, which mimics certain aspects of Delaware law.

The Comparison of the Construction Cost in Front and Back of the Disqualification Marker Price Revision with Construction Cost Investigation

Nagano wrestled with bid system reform of the public construction ahead of the whole country. One of the reforms is the switch from to general competitive bidding. As a result, it is considered that the collusion was almost removed because of decrease of the successful bid rate. But the constructer was driven into the severe management situation. So Nagano set disqualification marker price in H15 because of prevention of the decline of construction industry. In this study, I compared the construction cost in front and back of the disqualification marker revision using the construction cost investigation that Nagano carried out in H16 and that Nagano construction industry association carried out in H18.In this study, the successful bid rate and the profit and loss rate were improved by a disqualification standard revision but the constructer still faces the severe management situation. So it is suggested to the introduction of the guaranty system to protect the person of order and of the bid bond system to protect the person of ordering.

Analysis of Price Changes in Artificial Double Auction Markets Consisting of Multi-Agents Using Genetic Programming for Learning and Its Applications

In this paper, we show the analysis of price changes in artificial double auction markets consisting of multi-agents who learn from past experiences based on the Genetic Programming (GP) and its applications. For simplicity, we focus on the double auction in an electricity market. Agents in the market are allowed to buy or sell items (electricity) depending on the prediction of situations. Each agent has a pool of individuals (decision functions) represented in tree structures to decide bid price by using the past result of auctions. A fitness of each individual is defined by using successful bids and a capacity utilization rate of production units for a production of items, and agents improve their individuals based on the GP to get higher return in coming auctions. In simulation studies, changes of bid prices and returns of bidders are discussed depending on demand curves of customers and the weight between an average profit obtained by successful bids and the capacity utilization rate of production units. The validation of simulation studies is examined by comparing results with classical models and price changes in real double auction markets. Since bid prices bear relatively large changes, we apply an approximate method for a control by forcing agents stabilize the changes in bid prices. As a result, we see the stabilization scheme of bid prices in double auction markets is not realistic, then it is concluded that the market contains substantial instability.

Advertising on Trial: Consumer Activism and Corporate Public Relations in the 1930s. By Inger L. Stole. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. xviii, 290 pp. Cloth, $50.00, ISBN 978-0-252-03059-8. Paper, $25.00, ISBN 978-0-252-07299-4.)

Twentieth-century advertising has been shaped by new technologies from industrial mass production to new media. But what about the laws that regulated commercial advertising That history is told in Inger L. Stole's carefully researched and well-written story of the struggles among consumer advocates, advertisers, and government agencies over what federal legal constraints should apply to deceptive ads, especially for life-threatening products. Stole argues that advertising interests mobilized public relations in a successful bid to limit the regulation of advertising and laid foundations for the arguments and lobbying techniques that are still in use today. Stole first outlines the rise of modern consumer culture, in which advertising is “a mandatory business expense for all firms in an oligopolistic market” (p. 4). He recounts the development of national distribution and branding, noting Progressive Era critiques of advertising and the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. Some of that tale has been told before, including the emergence of a consumer movement by the thirties, with conflicts between leading organizations such as Consumers' Research and the Consumers' Union. Stole notes that both consumer advocates and advertising moguls kept a close eye on public opinion, and he cites polls that repeatedly showed consumers' support for greater regulation of false and dangerous advertising. Business responded by creating front groups to burnish the public image of advertising and tout its educational functions.

Developing a Work Rehabilitation Project: ‘Equal Pathways to Work’

Informal multiagency guidelines had been developed in Wolverhampton in an attempt to provide a pathway for clients to return to work following a period of rehabilitation. This resulted in a successful bid for European Social Funding, which enabled a dedicated occupational therapist and a project coordinator to be appointed for a 3-year period. This report discusses the process of setting up the project and evaluates the success of the project in assisting clients to return to work or retraining.

Sustainability by design: a reflection on the suitability of pedagogic practice in design and engineering courses in the teaching of sustainable design

Courses in product design are offered within the United Kingdom at the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex and in both cases are run within engineering departments alongside traditional engineering courses. This paper outlines some of the intrinsic pedagogic practices that are employed by these, and other, design courses. It highlights why creativity is a central tenet within these courses, which has underpinned the successful bid by the universities to jointly become the UK Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Creativity (CETL in C), and why, in particular, creativity is a key requirement in sustainable design. It supposes why these practices might, and should, offer a suitable role model for more traditional engineering courses.