Business Commons^™

Application Of The Fractional Diffusion Equation For Predicting Market Behaviour, Jonathan Blackledge

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Most Financial modelling system rely on an underlying hypothesis known as the Eficient Market Hypothesi (EMH) including the famous BlackScholes formula for placing an option. However, the EMH has a fundamental flaw: it is based on the assumption that economic processes are normally distributed and it has long been known that this is not the case. This fundamental assumption leads to a number of shortcomings associated with using the EMH to analyse financial data which includes failure to predict the future volatility of a market share value. This paper introduces a new financial risk assessment model based on Levy statistics …

Grade Inflation In The School Of Real Estate And Construction Economics, Dermot Kehily

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No abstract provided.

False Dichotomies, Facts And Values, And The Snares Of Objectivism: Planning For Leisure From An Experiential Perspective?, Ross Neville

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Despite the fact that the experiential perspective has had a profound impact on the way we view leisure behaviour, experiential matters have been renounced for being overtly subjective. As a corollary, experiential matters have been castigated for their inability to offer concrete criteria for leisure policy and the provisions of services. This paper argues that this dismissal of experiential matters is based on an overinflated dichotomy – the fact/value dichotomy – and that, by valorising objectivist approaches to managing leisure resources, experiential matters have become nothing more than a policy-making faux pas. The paper argues that while experiential matters bring …

Constructing And Disrupting Ireland's Industrial Development Authority, Paul Donnelly

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Actor-network theory is considered to have great potential for broadening and deepening our grasp of institutional work (LAWRENCE; SUDDABY, 2006). Given its focus on process, ANT offers a means to breathe life into the practices associated with institutionalization. With Callon’s (1986) four moments of translation as analytical lens, and with Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority as empirical example, I seek to address the concerns of Clegg and Machado da Silva (2009) by reconsidering “the role of agency, power, persistence and change in the process of institutionalization”.

Including The Customer In Efficiency Analysis:Evidence Of A Hybrid Relational-Transactional Approach, Joseph Coughlan, Estelle Shale, Robert Dyson

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Purpose This paper illustrates the effect of including the customer as a resource in efficiency measurement. Variations in counting the customer illustrate the different impacts on efficiency between a transactional and a relational approach to bank branch marketing. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyse the efficiency of the branch network under consideration. This technique, while well established in the bank branch efficiency literature, is used here to gain insight into how relationship and transactional paradigms are affecting performance. Findings Although the average profile of the efficiency scores was similar, the scores of the individual branches differed …

Subsidiaries As Learning Engines: Understanding Middle Managers’ Searching For Knowledge As Micro-Foundation, Esther Tippmann, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Vincent Mangematin

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A lot of research on MNC knowledge flows has concentrated on the organizational conditions that promote learning outcomes through a more efficient reuse of existing knowledge (cf. Gupta and Govindarajan 2000). Departing from this predominant research stream and recognising the increasingly important role of middle managers in large, distributed organizations, we investigated how subsidiary middle managers actually search for knowledge when dealing with non-routine problems and evaluated the solution outcomes in terms of generating organizational adaptation. By doing so, we contribute to several calls for more micro-level research of organizational learning processes (Felin and Foss 2005, 2009, Felin and Hesterly …

Practical Simulation Application: Evaluation Of Process Control Parameters In Twisted-Pair Cables Manufacturing System, Amr Mahfouz, Said Hassan, Amr Arisha

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Intensive competition and rapid technology development of Twisted-Pair Cables (TPC) industry have left no room for competing manufacturers to harbour system inefficiencies. TPC are used in various communication and networks hardware applications; their manufacturing facilities face many challenges including various product configurations with different equipment settings, different product flows and Work in Process (WIP) space limitations. The quest for internal efficiency and external effectiveness forces companies to align their internal settings and resources with external requirements/orders, or in different words, significant factors must be set appropriately and identified prior to manufacturing processes. Integrated definition models (IDEF0, IDEF3) in conjunction with …

Site Value Tax, Tom Dunne

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Tom Dunne discusses some of the issues surrounding property taxation in Ireland

(Le)Agility In Humanitarian Aid Supply Chains, Kirstin Scholten, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Brian Fynes

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Purpose - This paper explores the concept of agility in the context of supply chains of humanitarian aid (HA) organizations, particularly Non Government Organizations (NGOs). This responds to the increasing pressure on NGOs to use their resources more strategically if they are to gain donor trust and long term commitment. Design/ Methodology/Approach - A literature based approach that extends the commercial supply chain concept of agility to NGOs is combined with the first exploratory semi structured interviews of these concepts with five NGO supply chain directors. Findings – The commercial concept of agility when responding to disaster relief holds strong …

Digital Multi-Media And The Limits Of Privacy Law, Jacqueline D. Lipton

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While digital video and multi-media technologies are becoming increasingly prevalent, existing privacy laws tend to focus on text-based personal records. Individuals have little recourse when concerned about infringements of their privacy interests in audio, video, and multi-media files. Often people are simply unaware that video or audio records have been made. Even if they are aware of the existence of the records, they may be unaware of potential legal remedies, or unable to afford legal recourse. This paper concentrates on the ability of individuals to obtain legal redress for unauthorized use of audio, video and multi-media content that infringes their …

What Blogging Might Teach About Cybernorms, Jacqueline D. Lipton

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Since the dawn of the information age, scholars have debated the viability of regulating cyberspace. Early on, Professor Lawrence Lessig suggested that “code is law” online. Lessig and others also examined the respective regulatory functions of laws, code, market forces, and social norms. In recent years, with the rise of Web 2.0 interactive technologies, norms have taken center-stage as a regulatory modality online. The advantages of norms are that they can develop quickly by the communities that seek to enforce them, and they are not bound by geography. However, to date there has been scant literature dealing in any detail …

Young People's Use Of Online Social Networking Sites :A Uses And Gratifications Perspective, Aine Dunne, Margaret-Anne Lawlor, Jennifer Rowley

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Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore why young people use and participate in social networking sites (SNS) with specific reference to Bebo. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is employed in this study with a view to exploring the uses and gratifications that girls aged 12 to 14 years, both seek and obtain from the Bebo social networking site. The research was conducted in a school setting in Ireland. Findings – The findings indicate that the participants are actively using Bebo for their own personal motives and gratifications in terms of presenting and managing a certain …

Simulation Optimisation Methods In Supply Chain Applications: A Review, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo-Hamad

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The competitiveness and dynamic nature of today’s marketplace is due to rapid advances in information technology, short product life cycles and the continuing trend in global outsourcing. Managing the resulting supply chain networks effectively is challenged by high levels of uncertainty in supply and demand, confl ict objectives, vagueness of information, numerous decision variables and constraints. With such levels of complexity, supply chain optimisation has the potential to make a signifi cant contribution in resolving these challenges. In this paper, a literature review – based on more than 100 peer-reviewed articles – of state-of-the-art simulation-based optimisation techniques in the context …

Business Process Change In E-Government Projects: The Case Of The Irish Land Registry, Aileen Kennedy, Joseph Coughlan, Carol Kelleher

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This research investigates one of the first e-Government services launched as part of Ireland’s Information Society programme, the Irish Land Registry’s implementation of their award winning Electronic Access (EAS) project. In-depth enquiries into how public sector organisations manage IT-enabled transformations have remained relatively limited and this case contributes to this emerging body of literature. The analysis highlights that the implementation of e-Government initiatives beyond basic service levels necessitates business process change in order to reap rewards. This study fulfils an identified need for research in Business Process Change (BPC) in the implementation of e-Government initiatives. In this way the research …

No Longer, But Not Yet: Tweens And The Mediating Of Liminal Selves Through Metaconsumption, Kevina Cody, Katrina Lawlor, Pauline Mcclaren

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Using the anthropological theory of liminality as a lens of analysis, the following paper outlines specific elements of a research project exploring the consumer culture of a liminal group – tweens. The lived experience of a tween is explored using a multi-method approach incorporating personal diaries, in-depth interviews and accompanied shopping trips. Outcomes of one aspect of this longitudinal research project – the theory of metaconsumption - are presented, suggesting an important divergent theoretical path from the ‘effects’ - dominated consumer socialization approach to researching young people and their relationships with consumption. We conclude that those in a shadowed reality, …

Threshold Lives: Exploring The Liminal Consumption Of Tweens, Kevina Cody, Katrina Lawlor, Pauline Maclaren

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The intervening spaces of socio-cultural organisation have proved sources of fascination and powerful theory development in the fields of sociology, psychology and anthropology (e.g. Douglas, 1966; Van Gennep, 1961; Freud, 1950, Foucault, 1977). Consumer culture research has hitherto acknowledged the potency of studying transitional phenomena, spaces and places and the interactions of varied ontologies with the consumption experiences of the individuals or group in flux and evolution (e.g. Davies and Fitchett, 2004; Maldonado and Tansuhaj, 1999; Gentry, 1997; Schouten, 1991). But what of those whose reality is the threshold between two ordered and defined worlds, the centre of nowhere? This …

Systemic Risk Assessment Using A Non-Stationary Fractional Dynamic Stochastic Model For The Analysis Of Economic Signals, Jonathan Blackledge

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This paper considers the Fractal Market Hypothesis (FMH) for assessing the risk(s) in developing a financial portfolio based on data that is available through the Internet from an increasing number of sources. Most financial risk management systems are still based on the Efficient Market Hypothesis which often fails due to the inaccuracies of the statistical models that underpin the hypothesis, in particular, that financial data are based on stationary Gaussian processes. The FMH considered in this paper assumes that financial data are non-stationary and statistically self-affine so that a risk analysis can, in principal, be applied at any time scale …

Some Optimism About Fair Use And Copyright Law, Michael J. Madison

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This short paper reflects on the emergence of codes of best practices in fair use, highlighting both the relationship between the best practices approach and an institutional perspective on copyright and the relationship between the best practices approach and social processes of innovation and creativity.

Wikipedia And The European Union Database Directive, Jacqueline D. Lipton

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“Web 2.0" and "User Generated Content (UGC)" are the new buzzwords in cyberspace. In recent years, law and policy makers have struggled to keep pace with the needs of digital natives in terms of online content control in the new participatory web culture. Much of the discourse about intellectual property rights in this context revolves around copyright law: for example, who owns copyright in works generated by multiple people, and what happens when these joint authored works borrow from existing copyright works in terms of derivative works rights and the fair use defense. Many works compiled by groups are subject …

The Montreal Convention And The Preemption Of Air Passenger Harm Claims, Marc Mcdonald

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The article examines the evolution and present state of the law governing the preemption of passenger claims for compensation for harm arising from international air travel under the Montreal and Warsaw Conventions

'Have We All Gone Bats?' - The Strict Protection Of Wildlife Under The Habitats Directive And Tourism Development: Some Lessons From Ireland, Marc Mcdonald

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This article explores the impact of the legal protection of bats under EU wildilfe legislation on tourism development in Ireland.

Regenerating The Quays In Salford: An Analysis Of Visitor Perception, Behaviour And Experience, Ruth Craggs, Peter Schofield

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Tourism can generate substantial benefits to destination communities and has featured extensively in urban regeneration policy, but whilst there is now an extensive literature covering urban tourism and dockland regeneration, visitor perceptions of urban waterfront destinations and their on-site behaviour and experience remain largely unexplored. The paper focuses on the Quays in Salford, the city’s former docklands, which has been regenerated and repositioned as its flagship tourism product. It reports the findings from a questionnaire survey of visitors’ perceptions, behaviour and experience of the Quays. A principal components analysis revealed that four product performance dimensions: ‘primary attractions’, ‘secondary attractions’, ‘access’ …

The Quays In Salford: An Analysis Of Visitor Perceptions, Satisfaction And Behavioural Intention, Ruth Craggs, Peter Schofield

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Despite an extensive literature on urban regeneration, visitor perceptions of urban waterfront destinations and their subsequent outcomes remain largely
unexplored. The paper reports the findings from a survey of visitors to the Quays in Salford; it focuses on their perceptions, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. While the primary attractions were found to have an important influence, the secondary elements explain more of the variance in
overall satisfaction and intention to return to the Quays and the environmental aspects have a greater influence on visitor intention to recommend the destination. The implications of the findings for destination management and marketing are discussed.

Time Varying Risk Aversion: An Application To Energy Hedging, Jim Hanly, John Cotter

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Risk aversion is a key element of utility maximizing hedge strategies; however, it has typically been assigned an arbitrary value in the literature. This paper instead applies a GARCH-in-Mean (GARCH-M) model to estimate a time-varying measure of risk aversion that is based on the observed risk preferences of energy hedging market participants. The resulting estimates are applied to derive explicit risk aversion based optimal hedge strategies for both short and long hedgers. Out-of-sample results are also presented based on a unique approach that allows us to forecast risk aversion, thereby estimating hedge strategies that address the potential future needs of …

From Federations To Global Factories: Assessing The Contribution Of The Subsidiary Middle Manager In Today’S Mne, Donal O'Brien, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Pat Gibbons

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The evolution of MNEs (Multinational Enterprises) from rigid and hierarchical structures to more distributed authority and autonomy led to the theoretical justification for conceptualising them as a federative rather than unitary organisations (Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1990). Fundamental to the Federative MNE is the suggestion that subsidiary units, through their own actions, can modify the power base and influence MNE strategy ‘from below’ (Andersson et al., 2007). Considerable research highlights the potential of subsidiary units for knowledge creation and initiative (Birkinshaw, 1997, Rugman and Verbeke, 2001, Williams, 2009), but to date it has failed to confirm that MNEs actually operate as …

Consumer Awareness In The Adoption Of Microgeneration Technologies: An Empirical Investigation In The Republic Of Ireland, Marius Claudy, Claus Michelsen, Aidan O'Driscoll, Michael Mullen

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Despite major policy and marketing efforts, the uptake of microgeneration technologies in most European countries remains low. Whereas most academic studies and policy reports aim to identify the underlying reasons why people buy these new technologies, they often fail to assess the general level of consumer awareness. The process of adopting an innovation, however, shows that awareness is a prerequisite which needs to be understood before adoption can be addressed. This paper takes a closer look at awareness of microgeneration and presents the results from a nationally representative study conducted in the Republic of Ireland. Findings from logistic regressions clearly …

Ict Innovation Diffusion In Small Logistics Service Providers: An Empirical Survey, Pietro Evangelista, Edward Sweeney, Claudia-Maria Wagner

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For companies competing in highly dynamic markets, innovation is considered a fundamental component of a successful business as it allows companies to sustain profit margins, sales growth and reduce competitors’ pressures. Information and communication technology (ICT) is essential innovation enablers especially in service companies. The focus of the paper is on the analysis of the role of ICT in innovation processes of small third-party logistics service providers (3PLs). On the basis of quantitative evidence emerging from a recent survey carried out on the Italian 3PL market, the paper analyses how ICT is used to support innovation and the factors the …

Developing Subsidiary Contribution To The Mnc-Subsidiary Entrepreneurship And Strategy Creativity, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Gibbons Patrick, Joseph Coughlan

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Despite its theoretical and managerial significance, subsidiary entrepreneurship and its effects 15 on subsidiary contribution remain underexplored in the literature.We propose that subsidiary 16 entrepreneurship encourages more creative strategic responses to escalating environmental 17 change. We explore the direct and mediating effects of subsidiary entrepreneurship on 18 subsidiary contribution to the MNC, particularly subsidiary strategy creativity. We use 19 structural equation modelling to test our propositions on data generated from surveying the 20 population of Irish subsidiaries of foreign MNCs, and find strong support for our theoretical 21 predictions. The managerial implications of subsidiary entrepreneurship in generating creative 22 strategy, …

Veil-Piercing, Peter B. Oh

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From its inception veil-piercing has been a scourge on corporate law. Exactly when the veil of limited liability can and will be circumvented to reach into a shareholder’s own assets has befuddled courts, litigants, and scholars alike. And the doctrine has been bedeviled by empirical evidence of a chasm between the theory and practice of veil-piercing; notably, veil-piercing claims inexplicably seem to prevail more often in Contract than Tort, a finding that flouts the engrained distinction between voluntary and involuntary creditors.

With a dataset of 2908 cases from 1658 to 2006 this study presents the most comprehensive portrait of veil-piercing …

Copyright’S Twilight Zone: Digital Copyright Lessons From The Vampire Blogosphere, Jacqueline D. Lipton

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Web 2.0 technologies, characterized by user-generated content, raise new challenges for copyright law. Online interactions involving reproductions of copyrighted works in blogs, online fan fiction, and online social networks do not comfortably fit existing copyright paradigms. It is unclear whether participants in Web 2.0 forums are creating derivative works, making legitimate fair uses of copyright works, or engaging in acts of digital copyright piracy and plagiarism. As online conduct becomes more interactive, copyright laws are less effective in creating clear signals about proscribed conduct. This article examines the application of copyright law to Web 2.0 technologies. It suggests that social …