Industrial Organization Commons^™

Value-Chain Factors Influencing Production Volume And Gross Margin: Evidence From A Thai Dairy Processing Firm, Jiranij Jareonsawat, Aqeel Raza, Kittisak Ajariyakhajorn, Davids Makararpong, Henk Hogeveen, Chainarong Paoin, Nampueng Mesprasat, Chaidate Inchaisri

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

The dairy industry is vital for food security and economic stability, particularly in developing markets such as Thailand. Understanding factors related to production volume and gross margin in dairy processing firms can help inform performance and profitability considerations. Based on Porter’s value chain framework and a perception-based survey approach, this study used document reviews, in-depth interviews with 14 key informants, and an employee perception survey (n = 21) covering 74 relevant factors. Results indicated significant differences across ten activity categories for both production volume (Χ2 = 53.59, df = 9, P < 0.001) and gross margin (Χ2 = 26.89, df = 9, P < 0.001). For production volume, research and development (3.96 ± 0.66), human resources management (3.93 ± 0.63), and external factors (3.82 ± 0.82) had the highest mean perceived importance scores. For gross margin, external factors recorded the highest mean score (3.96 ± 0.81). At the factor level, the Thai government-regulated raw milk price was classified as the most important factor associated with production volume, while fuel prices were the most important factor related to gross margin. Both factors had the highest proportion of “High” and “Very High” responses (90.5%). These findings highlight the importance of aligning internal activities with external conditions within an institutional and policy context. This study provides insights into how institutional and policy constraints shape the way firm-level activities and external conditions are perceived and prioritized, and how these perceptions relate to performance in dairy processing firms in Thailand.

The Economic Benefits And Costs Of State And Local Incentives For Clean Energy Projects, Timothy J. Bartik, Gerrit Anderson, Brian J. Asquith, Kathleen Bolter, Kyle Huisman, Iryna V. Lendel, Jeremy Morris, Sevrin Williams

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

This report evaluates the benefits and costs of investment incentives for 50 large clean energy supply chain manufacturing and infrastructure projects. The findings suggest that these incentives generate modest but typically positive economic returns, with a median benefit-cost ratio of 1.47, meaning benefits exceed costs by 47 percent for the typical project. Returns vary significantly across projects—approximately 70 percent of projects produced net positive benefits over a 20-year period, while 30 percent failed to recover incentive costs. Project performance depends heavily on incentive design and local conditions. Excessively large cash incentives reduce returns, while customized services, strong job multipliers, investment …

Solid Waste Management In Greater Khartoum City, Sudan, Roba Mahmoud

Student Theses 2015-Present

This study investigates the rising solid waste management (SWM) dilemma in Greater Khartoum City (GKC), a critical environmental and public health issue caused by fast urbanization and inadequate infrastructure, with historical linkages to Sudan's colonial and postcolonial growth. Chapter 1 describes the current problem using quantitative and qualitative data, demonstrating that GKC produces approximately 3,340 tons of waste each day, with 56% organic matter, 8% plastics, and 16% paper. Collection efficiency remains severely poor, at 31.5%. Informal recyclers known as Nakasha or Barkata collect approximately 7% of total waste, supporting roughly 3,900 people, whereas filthy open dumps and unsorted medical …

The Impatience Of Winning: An Analysis Of Time Discounting, Predictive Modeling, And The Nba Draft, Alec R. Plante

Business and Economics Honors Papers

This paper examines whether NBA draft decisions can be better explained by incorporating non-geometric time discounting into a model of general manager decision making. Using a dataset of 285 NBA draft prospects over a 12-year period, the impact of college statistics on Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) is determined, and these impact values are then used to create a “predicted” VORP for the first 4 seasons of each player’s career: a projection of what a general manager might think of a prospect’s future value given their college statistics. Following this, geometric and hyperbolic time discounting models are applied to estimate …

Gender Norms, Socio-Organizational Ergonomics, And Female Labor Force Participation In South Asia, Huma Maqsood, Nor Fatimah Che Sulaiman, Suriyani Muhamad, Nor Aizal Akmal Binti Rohaizad, Sana Mukhtar

The Qualitative Report

Socio-organizational ergonomics encompasses workplace social and cultural factors that influence inclusion, performance, and well-being. Gender-based socio-organizational ergonomics has both microeconomic and macroeconomic implications. In this context, underutilization of women’s economic potential, evidenced by low female labor force participation, emerges as a critical factor that compromises sustainable growth in developing countries. To study the phenomenon, we examined the impact of gender norms on socio-organizational ergonomics and female labor force participation in South Asia. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 20 female participants are thematically analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s TA framework. Our findings highlight that socio-organizational ergonomics in South Asia is …

The Writing On The Wall: The Rise Of Applied Ai And The Life-Or-Death Choice Every Ceo Must Make Now, Gary Sheng, Ron Roberts

Digital Laboratory: Publisher of Internet Journal

Applied AI is putting AI to its highest and best use: running your organization as autonomously as possible so you can deliver value for humanity while maximizing the scale of the value. The economy is splitting. Organizations that adopt applied AI are expanding their capacity, accelerating their impact, and pulling ahead. Those that don't are quietly becoming irrelevant, not because they're doing bad work, but because the gap between what they can do and what the moment requires is widening every day. This is not a technology question. It is a leadership question. This paper is written for organizational leaders, …

Gender Inequality And Productivity Impact In Egypt, Hammad Elsaid Omar

The Undergraduate Research Journal

This study examines the relationship between gender inequality in Egypt's workforce and productivity across various sectors. Utilizing a comparative research design, the analysis employs quantitative data from sources such as the World Bank and the International Labor Organization. Key indicators of gender inequality—including the gender pay gap, the percentage of women in managerial positions, and female labor force participation rates—are correlated with productivity metrics like GDP per capita and productivity per employee (Figure 3). Findings reveal a strong negative correlation between the gender pay gap and productivity, with sectors exhibiting smaller pay disparities achieving higher productivity levels. Regression analysis indicates …

The Digital Commercial Revolution: U.S. Business Sales And The Entrepreneurial Exploitation Of Information And Communications Technology, John T. Scott

Dartmouth Scholarship

Businesses have taken the opportunities, made possible by information and communications technology (ICT), to develop and use digital platform services and other digital tools to support sales. This paper estimates a model of U.S. business sales and uses the estimated model to assess the economic impact of the digital commercial revolution of the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The estimations show that the entrepreneurial initiatives—that drove the digital revolution in commerce by capitalizing on the new technologies made available by the ICT revolution—came to fruition in the wake of the Great Recession. For 2019, the last year before …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Understanding Factors Influencing Electric Vehicle Adoption: Evidence From Panel Data Analysis, Ryker Brian

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper investigates the factors influencing the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) using panel data from California. The analysis employs a panel data model with within effects to examine the relationship between EV adoption rates and various socio-economic factors. The continued analysis gives out-of-sample forecasted results for the 4 counties with the highest share of electric vehicles registered in 2021. Additionally, the paper explores the influence of supply-side issues and complementary infrastructure on EV adoption. An introduction to Hidden Markov Methods is then given as the next step in the research.

The Role Of Filipino Conglomerates In The Nation's Development, Jesus Felipe

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Could the country's small and medium companies be the engines of transformation that it needs to attain and sustain the 6.5-8 percent annual growth targeted in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028? I doubt it. They have neither the knowledge nor the financial muscle to do it.

There is another group of companies that could lead the way. These are the large conglomerates of the nation. They have much better knowledge of the economy and financial power. Yet, in general, they do not innovate or export. Instead, they are into non-tradable activities (real estate, banking, distribution, insurance, construction, telecommunications and food). …

Esg Reporting And Its Effect On Financial Performance Of Oil, Gas, And Utility Companies In The United States, Logan Lam

Honors Theses

According to the Harvard Business Review article ESG Investing Isn’t Designed to Save the Plant (Pucker and King 2022), the term ESG investments – which stands for environmental, social, and governance investing – often confuses investors because it is unregulated. Additionally, the author continued to claim that the data is outdated and mostly unaudited. Even if data on these investments is available to investors, it can still be challenging for them to make decisions regarding ESG. Trusting compatibility and accuracy can be difficult considering that companies can choose how to produce or calculate their own ESG data. Another claim that …

Strengthening The Southern Nevada Workforce Pipeline, Katie M. Gilbertson

Student Research

Workforce development has been a keystone in the discussion of economic diversification of Las Vegas for decades. The leisure and hospitality industry is the lifeline for the Southern Nevada economy due to the reliance on tourism as the city’s main economic driver. The leisure and hospitality industry requires physical labor and more face-to-face customer interaction than other employment sectors. Thus, these jobs often do not require high educational attainment, but rather sharp soft skills like effective listening, nonverbal communication, and negotiation strategies. While these are valuable traits, the lack of educational attainment within the leisure and hospitality workforce suppresses employees’ …

Infrastructure Investment And European Economic Growth, John Ziolo

Global Tides

As the global economy continues to recover from the impacts of Covid-19, there is significant discussion among policymakers as to the best mechanisms to stimulate recovery. One of those mechanisms is infrastructure investment. There is a large contingent of policymakers who believe that large, immediate spending on infrastructure will lead to significant economic growth. While another group is concerned about the secondary effects of such large government spending packages. With global economies still digging out of the covid shock and supply chains struggling to keep up with demand, there is no better time to explore the topic. This paper then …

Ethical Ai Development: Evidence From Ai Startups, James Bessen, Stephen Michael Impink, Lydia Reichensperger, Robert Seamans

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial Intelligence startups use training data as direct inputs in product development. These firms must balance numerous trade-offs between ethical issues and data access without substantive guidance from regulators or existing judicial precedence. We survey these startups to determine what actions they have taken to address these ethical issues and the consequences of those actions. We find that 58% of these startups have established a set of AI principles. Startups with data-sharing relationships with high-technology firms; that were impacted by privacy regulations; or with prior (non-seed) funding from institutional investors are more likely to establish ethical AI principles. Lastly, startups …

Regenerative Tourism Model: Challenges Of Adapting Concepts From Natural Science To Tourism Industry, Asif Hussain, Marie Haley

Journal of Sustainability and Resilience

The study proposes a regenerative tourism model. The application of the natural science ideas of regeneration needs to be clarified before the tourism industry can adopt a regenerative tourism model. Without such clarification, there is a high risk of ‘green washing’ and inappropriate adaption of a regenerative model. The borrowing of natural science to industry and its application in social sciences confuse the essence of the true concept of regeneration. In a regenerative agriculture context restoring a holistic system that mimics nature and includes social and economic spheres contributes to improving the whole system. When a social system aims to …

Measuring The Contribution Of The Ocean: A Comparison Of The Statistical Classification Of The Marine Economy Used By China And Canada, Weiling Song, Jing Guo, Yuxin Liu, Yue Yin, Yue Wang

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Most of the major marine countries share an identical knowledge about marine economy. Ocean-related principle is the primary principles which distinguish the ocean economy from national economy and other economies. The understandings of marine economy from various countries all take into consideration the ocean-relativeness character geographically or industrially. However, there are certain differences in statistical frameworks and specific industrial classifications. In this paper, the statistical classification of marine economy between China and Canada is comparatively studied from the perspectives of the connotation of marine economy, the classification of regional statistics, and the classification of industrial statistics. Moreover, the identification of …

The Partition Of Production Between Households And Markets, Christopher Colburn, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

The process of industrialization was accompanied by the switch from household production to firm production. The industrialization process was also a process of population growth, the appearance of general-purpose technologies, and the expansion of international trade. This paper studies the partition of production between households and firms in an analytically tractable general equilibrium model with a continuum of goods. We show that population growth, development of general-purpose technologies, and the opening of international trade increase the percentage of goods produced by firms. However, with the appearance of a technology biased toward home production, the percentage of goods produced by households …

The Role Of Data For Ai Startup Growth, James Bessen, Stephen Michael Impink, Lydia Reichensperger, Robert Seamans

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (“AI”)-enabled products are expected to drive economic growth. Training data are important for firms developing AI-enabled products; without training data, firms cannot develop or refine their algorithms. This is particularly the case for AI startups developing new algorithms and products. However, there is no consensus in the literature on which aspects of training data are most important. Using unique survey data of AI startups, we find that startups with access to proprietary training data are more likely to acquire venture capital funding.

Futurological Fodder: On Communicating The Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, And Employment, Michael E. Samers Dr

Geography Faculty Publications

This article examines the debate concerning the employment implications of the so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (FIR) or the increasing presence of artificial intelligence and robotics in workplaces. I analyze three ‘genres’ associated with this debate (academic studies including neo-classical and heterodox/post-human approaches, the ‘gray literature’, and popular media) and I argue that together they represent ‘futurological fodder’ or discourses and knowledges that ‘perform’ the FIR and its purported consequences. I contend further that these genres involve a complex mix of ethics and politics, and I conclude with a reflection on the political implications of the FIR debate.

Government Royalties On Sales Of Pharmaceutical And Other Biomedical Products Developed With Substantial Public Funding: Illustrated With The Technology Transfer Of The Drug-Eluting Coronary Stent, Robert S. Danziger, John T. Scott

Dartmouth Scholarship

This study develops a detailed description of the successful technology transfer of an invention—the drug-eluting coronary stent—originating in intramural research within the National Institutes of Health. The history of the commercialization of the invention is used to illustrate a new policy, proposed and explained in this study, for the payment to the government of royalties on the sales of biomedical products developed with substantial public funding provided through indirect as well as direct funding avenues. The proposed policy addresses concerns about the high prices that taxpayers as consumers pay for biomedical products that were developed with funding from the taxpayers …

Revisiting The Finance And Industrial Growth Nexus In Nigeria, E. A. Udeaja, E. O. Akanni, P. F. Offum

Economic and Financial Review

This paper re-examines the relationship between finance and industrial growth in Nigeria by including aggregate credit to the industrial sector and financial development index as additional variables into the industrial growth model. Using data spanning the last four decades, we apply the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to estimate an industrial growth model that accounts for the role of finance-related variables, while also controlling for the impact of electricity consumption and structural breaks. The key findings in the study are threefold. First, our results confirm that finance is a significant driver of industrial growth in Nigeria. Second, the …

Board Of Director Composition: An Examination Of How Director Age And Board Innovation Committees Impact Corporate Social And Financial Performance, Sami Ghaddar

2021

This dissertation explores how director age affects a firm’s social domain, and how board-level oversight of firms’ innovation activities affects financial performance. Specifically, the dissertation points to board configurations that can potentially improve social and financial performance. The first chapter reviews the literature by examining two research streams linking board composition to corporate social performance (CSP) and innovation. The chapter presents the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of these two streams. It details the descriptive and thematic findings and offers an understanding of the different contexts in which board composition relates to both CSP and innovation. This chapter also discusses inconsistencies …

The Political Economy Of Small Medium Enterprise Development: Characteristics, Productive Value, And Market Constraints In Industrial Manufacturing, Christine Ngo, Miao Chi

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper highlights the importance of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) development and introduces the theoretical concept of productive value for qualitative analysis of firms. Vietnam’s industrial development experience is used as a case study. Although the Vietnamese government has channelled rents and business opportunities towards the state sector, the domestic private sector has been crucial to the country’s industrial development. Given this context, this study analyses how Vietnamese SMEs in the private sector generate productive value and overcome market failures that constrain their growth. Research findings demonstrate that most local SMEs in the industrial sectors rely on low pricing …

Agglomeration Economies: How “Y’Allywood” Became The New Hollywood, Joseph Dugan Walker

Honors Theses

Agglomeration economies have gained special attention in recent decades. With the increasing connectivity of our world, specialized regional economies are stronger now than ever before. A specific agglomeration economy that has developed in recent years is the Georgia Film Industry. This region surpassed Hollywood as the premier filming location for the first time since the early 1900s when New York was number one. This thesis analyzes the reasons why Georgia was so successful in attracting the film industry and encouraging its development by comparing infrastructure, film tax incentives, population, and labor development to that of competing states like New York, …

The Impact Of American Economic Aid On Post-World War Ii Germany, Gabriella Barber, Emily T. Carlstrom

Senior Theses

This paper examines the state of Germany immediately after World War II, describing how the American government intervened in West German reconstruction. It analyzes three specific German companies that overcame hardship in the 1940s and 50s and have become powerhouses today. Additionally, an overview of the current German economy shows how the country is positioned as a world leader.

Research was conducted using literary print sources, scholarly internet databases, and a formal interview with Klaus Becker, Honorary Consul to Germany. He is a German-American businessman who has held roles in several non-political associations, including President of the Charlotte World Trade …

Governance, Institutional Quality, Growth And Inequality In Africa. A Study Of Central Bank Of Nigeria, Ann Ogbo, Arachie Augustine Ebuka, Ezema Ikechukwu Humphrey

Bullion

This paper examined the role of institutional quality on economic growth and reduction of inequality in Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted and data were collected through primary and secondary sources. Population of the study was 600 businesses across Nigeria. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Findings revealed that the bottlenecks facing businesses in accessing loans have significant effects on business creation in Nigeria. The study concluded that lack of policies and interventions are not the problems for small businesses to obtaining funds from government, but effectiveness and efficiency of these interventions and policies.

Common Power Laws For Cities And Spatial Fractal Structures, Tomoya Mori, Tony E. Smith, Wen-Tai Hsu

Research Collection School Of Economics

City-size distributions are known to be well approximated by power laws across a wide range of countries. But such distributions are also meaningful at other spatial scales, such as within certain regions of a country. Using data from China, France, Germany, India, Japan, and the United States, we first document that large cities are significantly more spaced out than would be expected by chance alone. We next construct spatial hierarchies for countries by first partitioning geographic space using a given number of their largest cities as cell centers and then continuing this partitioning procedure within each cell recursively. We find …

Why Do Businesses Grow Faster In Urban Areas Than In Rural Areas?, Lee, Jungho, Jianhuan Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

We document that growth of business earnings is mostly observed among young firmsin metro areas. Three explanations are considered: metro areas attract more-productiveentrepreneurs, and reaching the optimal size takes time due to borrowing constraints;metro areas provide better learning opportunities; and high operating costs in metroareas allow only the productive firms to survive. We use a firm-dynamics model with alocation choice to quantify the extent to which the three theories explain the data. Wefind the first two theories largely explain the high growth among metro, young firms. Ourmodel also suggests the distortion in entrepreneurs’ location choice can induce substantialwelfare loss.

A New Materials And Design Approach For Roads, Bridges, Pavement, And Concrete, Alan Fuchs, Tathagata Acharya, Luis Cabrales, Jesse Bergkamp, Nyakundi Michieka

Mineta Transportation Institute

Increased understanding of demand for transport energy and how to improve road pavement materials would enable decision makers to make environmental, financial, and other positive changes in future planning and design of roads, bridges, and other important transportation structures. This research comprises three studies focused on pavement materials and a fourth study that examines energy demand within the road transportation sector. These studies are as follows:

1. A techno-economic study of ground tire rubber as an asphalt modifier;

2. A computational fluid dynamics analysis comparing the urban heat island effect of two different pavement materials – asphalt and Portland Cement …