Search results for: electricity market reform
718 Smart Container Farming: Innovative Urban Strawberry Farming Model from Japan to the World
Authors: Nishantha Giguruwa
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This research investigates the transformative potential of smart container farming, building upon the successful cultivation of Japanese mushrooms at Sakai Farms in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, under the strategic collaboration with the Daikei Group. Inspired by this success, the study focuses on establishing an advanced urban strawberry farming laboratory with the aim of understanding strawberry farming technologies, fostering collaboration, and strategizing marketing approaches for both local and global markets. Positioned within the business framework of Sakai Farms and the Daikei Group, the study underscores the sustainability and forward-looking solutions offered by smart container farming in agriculture. The global significance of strawberries is emphasized, acknowledging their economic and cultural importance. The detailed examination of strawberry farming intricacies informs the technological framework developed for smart containers, implemented at Sakai Farms. Integral to this research is the incorporation of controlled bee pollination, a groundbreaking addition to the smart container farming model. The study anticipates future trends, outlining avenues for continuing exploration, stakeholder collaborations, policy considerations, and expansion strategies. Notably, the author expresses a strategic intent to approach the global market, leveraging the foreign student/faculty base at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, where the author is affiliated. This unique approach aims to disseminate the research findings globally, contributing to the broader landscape of agricultural innovation. The integration of controlled bee pollination within this innovative framework not only enhances sustainability but also marks a significant stride in the evolution of urban agriculture, aligning with global agricultural trends.Keywords: smart container farming, urban agriculture, strawberry farming technologies, controlled bee pollination, agricultural innovation
Procedia PDF Downloads 43717 Management Challenges and Product Quality of Fish Farms in Greece
Authors: S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides, S. Logothetis, G. Kanlis
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The Greek aquaculture industry is second most important economic sector for the growth of the Greek Economy. The purpose of the present work is to present some data for the management challenges that the Aquaculture industry in Greece is currently facing. Currently the Greek aquaculture industry is going through a series of mergers and restructure. The financial status of the different aquaculture companies, the working conditions and management practices may vary according to lending exposure, market mix, company size, and technological parameters of the different fish farm units and rearing systems. Frequently, the aquaculture personnel are exposed to harsh environmental conditions and to occupational risk. Furthermore, there is pressure on the personnel of fish farms to constantly improve their production efficiency and to enhance their work skills to the new methods and practices which are adopted by the aquaculture industry. There is some data to suggest the existence of gender inequality in the workforce of Greek fish farms. Women are paid less, frequently absent higher managerial positions and most of the male workmates consider the job to harsh for women. Nevertheless, high level of job satisfaction was observed in both men and women. This high level of job satisfaction of the aquaculture personnel can be attributed, at least partially, to the nature of the work which has a very distinct working environment but most of the staff has very positive experiences with the interaction with their workmates and the satisfaction of being in a business which always exceeds its production target. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that the Greek aquaculture industry is always exceeding its production targets, while it is rapidly adopting and improving new technology, constantly improving of human resources management practices, which include constant training of the staff, very good communication channels between management and the personnel and reducing the risk of occupational hazard to the aquaculture personnel. All these parameters of management may have a determining role for the volume and quality of the production and future of this sector in Greece.Keywords: aquaculture, fish quality, management, production targets
Procedia PDF Downloads 435716 Valorization of Waste and By-products for Protein Extraction and Functional Properties
Authors: Lorena Coelho, David Ramada, Catarina Nobre, Joaquim Gaião, Juliana Duarte
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The development of processes that allows the valorization of waste and by-products generated by industries is crucial to promote symbiotic relationships between different sectors and is mandatory to “close the loop” in the circular economy paradigm. In recent years, by-products and waste from agro-food and forestry sector have attracted attention due to their potential application and technical characteristics. The extraction of bio-based active compounds to be reused is in line with the circular bioeconomy concept trends, combining the use of renewable resources with the process’s circularity, aiming the waste reduction and encouraging reuse and recycling. Among different types of bio-based materials, which are being explored and can be extracted, proteins fractions are becoming an attractive new raw material. Within this context, BioTrace4Leather project, a collaboration between two Technological Centres – CeNTI and CTIC, and a company of Tanning and Finishing of Leather – Curtumes Aveneda, aims to develop innovative and biologically sustainable solutions for leather industry and accomplish the market circularity trends. Specifically, it aims to the valorisation of waste and by-products from the tannery industry through proteins extraction and the development of an innovative and biologically sustainable materials. The achieved results show that keratin, gelatine, and collagen fractions can be successfully extracted from hair and leather bovine waste. These products could be reintegrated into the industrial manufacturing process to attain innovative and functional textile and leather substrates. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This work has been developed under BioTrace4Leather scope, a project co-funded by Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (COMPETE) of PORTUGAL2020, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), under grant agreement Nº POCI-01-0247-FEDER-039867.Keywords: leather by-products, circular economy, sustainability, protein fractions
Procedia PDF Downloads 145715 Financial Performance Model of Local Economic Enterprises in Matalam, Cotabato
Authors: Kristel Faye Tandog
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The State Owned Enterprise (SOE) or also called Public Enterprise (PE) has been playing a vital role in a country’s social and economic development. Following this idea, this study focused on the Factor Structures of Financial Performance of the Local Economic Enterprises (LEEs) namely: Food Court, Market, Slaughterhouse, and Terminal in Matalam, Cotabato. It aimed to determine the profile of the LEEs in terms of organizational structure, manner of creation, years in operation, source of initial operating requirements, annual operating budget, geographical location, and size or description of the facility. This study also included the different financial ratios of LEE that covered a five year period from Calendar Year 2009 to 2013. Primary data using survey questionnaire was administered to 468 respondents and secondary data were sourced out from the government archives and financial documents of the said LGU. There were 12 dominant factors identified namely: “management”, “enforcement of laws”, “strategic location”, “existence of non-formal competitors”, “proper maintenance”, “pricing”, “customer service”, “collection process”, “rentals and services”, “efficient use of resources”, “staffing”, and “timeliness and accuracy”. On the other hand, the financial performance of the LEE of Matalam, Cotabato using financial ratios needs reformatting. This denotes that refinement as to the following ratios: Cash Flow Indicator, Activity, Profitability and Growth is necessary. The cash flow indicator ratio showed difficulty in covering its debts in successive years. Likewise, the activity ratios showed that the LEE had not been effective in putting its investment at work. Moreover, profitability ratios revealed that it had operated in minimum capacity and had incurred net losses and thus, it had a weak profit performance. Furthermore, growth ratios showed that LEE had a declining growth trend particularly in net income.Keywords: factor structures, financial performance, financial ratios, state owned enterprises
Procedia PDF Downloads 248714 Effects of the In-Situ Upgrading Project in Afghanistan: A Case Study on the Formally and Informally Developed Areas in Kabul
Authors: Maisam Rafiee, Chikashi Deguchi, Akio Odake, Minoru Matsui, Takanori Sata
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Cities in Afghanistan have been rapidly urbanized; however, many parts of these cities have been developed with no detailed land use plan or infrastructure. In other words, they have been informally developed without any government leadership. The new government started the In-situ Upgrading Project in Kabul to upgrade roads, the water supply network system, and the surface water drainage system on the existing street layout in 2002, with the financial support of international agencies. This project is an appropriate emergency improvement for living life, but not an essential improvement of living conditions and infrastructure problems because the life expectancies of the improved facilities are as short as 10–15 years, and residents cannot obtain land tenure in the unplanned areas. The Land Readjustment System (LRS) conducted in Japan has good advantages that rearrange irregularly shaped land lots and develop the infrastructure effectively. This study investigates the effects of the In-situ Upgrading Project on private investment, land prices, and residents’ satisfaction with projects in Kart-e-Char, where properties are registered, and in Afshar-e-Silo Lot 1, where properties are unregistered. These projects are located 5 km and 7 km from the CBD area of Kabul, respectively. This study discusses whether LRS should be applied to the unplanned area based on the questionnaire and interview responses of experts experienced in the In-situ Upgrading Project who have knowledge of LRS. The analysis results reveal that, in Kart-e-Char, a lot of private investment has been made in the construction of medium-rise (five- to nine-story) buildings for commercial and residential purposes. Land values have also incrementally increased since the project, and residents are commonly satisfied with the road pavement, drainage systems, and water supplies, but dissatisfied with the poor delivery of electricity as well as the lack of public facilities (e.g., parks and sport facilities). In Afshar-e-Silo Lot 1, basic infrastructures like paved roads and surface water drainage systems have improved from the project. After the project, a few four- and five-story residential buildings were built with very low-level private investments, but significant increases in land prices were not evident. The residents are satisfied with the contribution ratio, drainage system, and small increase in land price, but there is still no drinking water supply system or tenure security; moreover, there are substandard paved roads and a lack of public facilities, such as parks, sport facilities, mosques, and schools. The results of the questionnaire and interviews with the four engineers highlight the problems that remain to be solved in the unplanned areas if LRS is applied—namely, land use differences, types and conditions of the infrastructure still to be installed by the project, and time spent for positive consensus building among the residents, given the project’s budget limitation.Keywords: in-situ upgrading, Kabul city, land readjustment, land value, planned area, private investment, residents' satisfaction, unplanned area
Procedia PDF Downloads 194713 Gendering the Political Crisis in Hong Kong: A Cultural Analysis of Spectatorship on Marvel Superhero Movies in Hong Kong
Authors: Chi S. Lee
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Marvel superhero movies have obtained its unprecedented popularity around the globe. It is a dominant narrative in current scholarship on superhero studies that the political trauma of America, such as attack of September 11, and the masculinity represented in superhero genre are symbolically connected in a way of remasculinization, a standardized plot that before becoming a superhero, a man has to overcome its trauma in his life. Through this standardized plot, American audience finds their pleasure in the spectatorship of equating this plot of remasculinization with the situation of America, rewriting their traumatic memory and resolving around the economic, social, political, and psychological instability of precarity in their own context. Shifting the context to Hong Kong, where Marvel superhero movies have been reaching its dominant status in the local film market, this analysis finds its limitation in explaining the connection between text and context. This article aims to retain this connection through investigation of the Hong Kong audience’s spectatorship. It is argued that the masculinity represented in Marvel superhero movies no longer fits into the stereotypical image of superhero, but presents itself in crisis. This crisis is resolved by the technological excess of the superpower, namely, technological remasculinization. The technological remasculinization offers a sense of futurity through which it is felt that this remasculinization can be achieved in the foreseeable future instead of remaining imaginary and fictional. In this way, the political crisis of Hong Kong is gendered as masculinity in crisis which is worth being remasculinized in the future. This gendering process is a historical product as the symbolic equation between politics and masculinity has for long been encoded in the colonial history of Hong Kong. In short, Marvel superhero’s masculinity offers a sense of masculine hope for the Hong Kong audiences to overcome the political crisis they confront in reality through a postponed identification with the superhero’s masculinity. After the discussion of the Hong Kong audience’s spectatorship on Marvel superhero movies with the insights casted by spectatorship theory, above idea is generated.Keywords: political crisis in Hong Kong, Marvel superhero movies, spectatorship, technological remasculinization
Procedia PDF Downloads 272712 On-Farm Research on Organic Fruits Production in the Eastern Thailand
Authors: Sali Chinsathit, Haruthai Kaenla
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Organic agriculture has become a major policy theme for agricultural development in Thailand since October 2005. Organic farming is enlisted as an important national agenda, to promote safe food and national export, and many government authorities have initiated projects and activities centered on organic farming promotion. Currently, Thailand has the market share of about 32 million US$ a year by exporting organic products of rice, vegetables, tea, fruits and a few medicinal herbs. There is high potential in organic crop production as there is the tropical environment promoting crop growth and leader farmer in organic farming. However, organic sector is relatively small (0.2%) comparing with conventional agricultural area, since there are many factors affecting farmers’ adoption and success in organic farming. The objective of this project was to get the organic production technology for at least 3 organic crops. The treatment and method were complied with Thai Organic Standard, and were mainly concerned on increase plant biodiversity and soil improvement by using organic fertilizer and bio-extract from fish, egg, plant and fruits. The bio-logical control, plant-extracts, and cultural practices were used to control insect pests and diseases of 3 crops including mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.), longkong (Aglaia dookoo Griff.) and banana (Musa (AA group)). The experiments were carried out at research centers of Department of Agriculture and farmers’ farms in Rayong and Chanthaburi provinces from 2009 to 2013. We found that both locations, plant biodiversity by intercropping mangosteen or longkong with banana and soil improvement with composts and bio-extract from fish could increased yield and farmers’ income by 6,835 US$/ha/year. Farmers got knowledge from these technologies to produce organic crops. The organic products were sold both in domestic and international countries. The organic production technologies were also environmental friendly and could be used as an alternative way for farmers in Thailand.Keywords: banana, longkong, mangosteen, organic farming
Procedia PDF Downloads 354711 Monitoring and Evaluation in Community-Based Tourism: An Analysis and Model
Authors: Ivan Gunass Govender, Andrea Giampiccoli
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A developmental state should use community engagement to facilitate socio-economic development for disadvantaged groups and individual members of society through empowerment, social justice, sustainability, and self-reliance. In this regard, community-based tourism (CBT) as a growing market should be an indigenous effort aided by external facilitation. Since this form of tourism presents its own preconditions, characteristics, and challenges, it could be guided by higher education institutions engagement. In particular, the facilitation should not only serve to assist the community members to reach their own goals; but rather also focus on learning through knowledge creation and sharing with the engagement of higher education institutions. While the increased relevance of CBT has produced various CBT manuals (or handbooks/guidelines) documents aimed to ‘teach’ and assist various entities in CBT development, this research aims to analyse the current monitoring & evaluation (M&E) manuals and thereafter, propose an M&E model for CBT. It is important to mention that all too often effective monitoring is seldom carried out thus risking the long-term sustainability and improvement of the CBT ventures. Therefore, the proposed model will also consider some inputs external to the tourism field, but in relation to local economic development (LED) matters from the previously proposed development monitoring and evaluation system framework. M&E should be seen as fundamental components of any CBT initiative, and the whole CBT intervention should be evaluated. In this context, M&E in CBT should go beyond strict ‘numerical’ economic matters and should be understood in a holistic development. In addition, M&E in CBT should not consider issues in various ‘compartments’ such as tourists, tourism attractions, CBT owners/participants, and stakeholder engagement but as interdependent components of a macro-ecosystem. Finally, the external facilitation process should be structured in a way to promote community self-reliance in both the intervention and the M&E process. The research will attempt to propose an M&E model for CBT so as to enhance the CBT possibilities of long-term growth and success through effective collaborations with key stakeholders.Keywords: community-based tourism, community-engagement, monitoring and evaluation, stakeholders
Procedia PDF Downloads 289710 Analysis of the Advent of Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries: Case Study of Nike Factories Expansion in Vietnam
Authors: Khue Do Phan
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Nike has been confronted by the press with their harsh working conditions, underpayment and highly-labor intensive requirement to their manufacturing workers and hiring of underage workers in Vietnam, Nike's largest production center. To analyze this topic critically through an international relations perspective, theory of dependency will be used to criticize the notion of exploitation of resources from developed countries towards developing countries. Theory of economic liberalism will be used to support the notion private property, the free market and generally capitalism as beneficial to both developing and developed countries. Workers are mentally, physically and sexually abused in the factories. In addition to this, their working conditions consist of improper training, lack of safety equipment, exposure of chemicals (glues and pants), their average wage is below the minimum wage in their country; the workers have to work around 60 hours or more a week. Even Nike says that the conditions are regulated often to make sure the workers get a voice to have their work rights and safe working environment. The monitors come to analyze the factories but in the end talk to the employers, whom are the direct abusers to the employees. Health benefits are rarely granted to the employees; they are forced to pay their bills first then the company will reimburse them later. They would also get in trouble for using the bathroom, taking a lunch break or sick days off because this would mean it would decrease their hours of work, leading to an even lower wage and a really angry employer. Of course with the press criticizing Nike’s lack of respect for human rights and working rights, Nike has been working on policy making and implementation to deal with the abuses. Due to its large chains and a great number of outsourcing host countries, the changes that Nike wish or attempt to make have not be in effect as quickly nor spreading to all countries it holds accountable for in its outsourcing factories.Keywords: dependency theory, economic liberalism, human rights, outsource
Procedia PDF Downloads 324709 A Photoredox (C)sp³-(C)sp² Coupling Method Comparison Study
Authors: Shasline Gedeon, Tiffany W. Ardley, Ying Wang, Nathan J. Gesmundo, Katarina A. Sarris, Ana L. Aguirre
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Drug discovery and delivery involve drug targeting, an approach that helps find a drug against a chosen target through high throughput screening and other methods by way of identifying the physical properties of the potential lead compound. Physical properties of potential drug candidates have been an imperative focus since the unveiling of Lipinski's Rule of 5 for oral drugs. Throughout a compound's journey from discovery, clinical phase trials, then becoming a classified drug on the market, the desirable properties are optimized while minimizing/eliminating toxicity and undesirable properties. In the pharmaceutical industry, the ability to generate molecules in parallel with maximum efficiency is a substantial factor achieved through sp²-sp² carbon coupling reactions, e.g., Suzuki Coupling reactions. These reaction types allow for the increase of aromatic fragments onto a compound. More recent literature has found benefits to decreasing aromaticity, calling for more sp³-sp² carbon coupling reactions instead. The objective of this project is to provide a comparison between various sp³-sp² carbon coupling methods and reaction conditions, collecting data on production of the desired product. There were four different coupling methods being tested amongst three cores and 4-5 installation groups per method; each method ran under three distinct reaction conditions. The tested methods include the Photoredox Decarboxylative Coupling, the Photoredox Potassium Alkyl Trifluoroborate (BF3K) Coupling, the Photoredox Cross-Electrophile (PCE) Coupling, and the Weix Cross-Electrophile (WCE) Coupling. The results concluded that the Decarboxylative method was very difficult in yielding product despite the several literature conditions chosen. The BF3K and PCE methods produced competitive results. Amongst the two Cross-Electrophile coupling methods, the Photoredox method surpassed the Weix method on numerous accounts. The results will be used to build future libraries.Keywords: drug discovery, high throughput chemistry, photoredox chemistry, sp³-sp² carbon coupling methods
Procedia PDF Downloads 131708 Assessment of Barriers Influencing the Adoption of Building Information Modelling in the Construction Industry, Lagos State, Nigeria
Authors: Tosin Deborah Akanbi, Adeyemi Oluwaseun Adepoju, Hameed Olusegun Adebambo, Akinloye Fatai Lawal
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Building information modelling (BIM) is a process that starts with the development of a sequential 3D design and encourages data administration, organization, and visualization throughout the life span of a facility (drawings, construction, and supervision). The implementation of building information modelling has been slow in recent years, and this is due to some prominent barriers that hinder its adoption. In this regard, the study aims to examine the significant barriers that influence the adoption of building information modelling in the Lagos state construction industry. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey with 332 construction professionals in the study area. Three online structured interviews were conducted to support and validate the findings of the quantitative analysis. The results revealed that interest (lack of awareness and understanding of BIM, absence of in-house BIM competent professionals, and unavailability of BIM competent professionals in the labour market), legal (lack of policies and regulations on copyright ownership and lack of enforcement from government agencies and industry leaderships) and professional (people’s inability or refusal to learn new technologies and processes, waste in time and human resource and lack of clarity of professional roles in BIM) barriers are the major barriers influencing the adoption of BIM. The results also revealed that six final themes were generated, namely: finance barriers, industry barriers, interest barriers, leadership barriers, legal barriers, and professional barriers. Thus, there is a need for policymakers to design and implement policies (regulatory, economic, and information) to promote financial schemes to support construction firms and professionals and to reduce financial barriers. It is also important for the government to lay down rules and regulations that must be enforced among the construction professionals and firms in the Lagos state construction industry.Keywords: BIM barriers, BIM adoption characteristics, construction industry, Lagos State Nigeria
Procedia PDF Downloads 34707 The Motivation System Development: Case-Study of the Trade Metal Company in Russian Federation
Authors: Elena V. Lysenko
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Motivating as the leading function of a modern Human Resources Management involves issues of increasing the effectiveness of the organization in a broader context. During the formation of motivational systems, the top-management of organization should pay equal attention to both external motivation (incentive system) and internal (self-motivation). The balance of internal and external motivation harmonizes the relations between employers and employees, increases the level of job satisfaction by the organization staff, which in turn leads the organization to success and ensures the organization`s profitability and competitiveness in the market environment. The article is devoted to the study of personnel motivation system in the small metal trade company, which is located in Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation. The study took place during November-December, 2016 ordered by the Company Director to analyze the motivational potential of work (managerial aspect of motivation) and motivation of personnel (personnel aspect of motivation) with the purpose to construct a system of employees’ motivation. The research tools included 6 specially selected tests of motivation, which are: “Motivation profile of your job”, “Constructive motivational attitudes”, Tests about Motivation of achievements (1st variant: Test by А.Mehrabian by the theory of D.С.McClelland and 2nd variant: Test about leading needs according with the theory of D.С.MacClelland), Tests by T.Elers (1st variant: “Determination of the motivation towards success or to avoid failure” and 2nd variant: “Trends to achieve results or to avoid failure”). The results of the study showed only one, but fundamental problem of the whole organization: high level of both motivational potential in work and self-motivation, especially in terms of achievement motivation, but serious lack of productivity. According the results which study showed this problem is derived from insufficient staff competence. The research suggests basic guidelines in order to build the new personnel motivation system for this Company, which is planned to be developed in the nearest future.Keywords: incentive system, motivation of achievements, motivation system, self-motivation
Procedia PDF Downloads 305706 The Applications of Zero Water Discharge (ZWD) Systems for Environmental Management
Authors: Walter W. Loo
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China declared the “zero discharge rules which leave no toxics into our living environment and deliver blue sky, green land and clean water to many generations to come”. The achievement of ZWD will provide conservation of water, soil and energy and provide drastic increase in Gross Domestic Products (GDP). Our society’s engine needs a major tune up; it is sputtering. ZWD is achieved in world’s space stations – no toxic air emission and the water is totally recycled and solid wastes all come back to earth. This is all done with solar power. These are all achieved under extreme temperature, pressure and zero gravity in space. ZWD can be achieved on earth under much less fluctuations in temperature, pressure and normal gravity environment. ZWD systems are not expensive and will have multiple beneficial returns on investment which are both financially and environmentally acceptable. The paper will include successful case histories since the mid-1970s. ZWD discharge can be applied to the following types of projects: nuclear and coal fire power plants with a closed loop system that will eliminate thermal water discharge; residential communities with wastewater treatment sump and recycle the water use as a secondary water supply; waste water treatment Plants with complete water recycling including water distillation to produce distilled water by very economical 24-hours solar power plant. Landfill remediation is based on neutralization of landfilled gas odor and preventing anaerobic leachate formation. It is an aerobic condition which will render landfill gas emission explosion proof. Desert development is the development of recovering soil moisture from soil and completing a closed loop water cycle by solar energy within and underneath an enclosed greenhouse. Salt-alkali land development can be achieved by solar distillation of salty shallow water into distilled water. The distilled water can be used for soil washing and irrigation and complete a closed loop water cycle with energy and water conservation. Heavy metals remediation can be achieved by precipitation of dissolved toxic metals below the plant or vegetation root zone by solar electricity without pumping and treating. Soil and groundwater remediation - abandoned refineries, chemical and pesticide factories can be remediated by in-situ electrobiochemical and bioventing treatment method without pumping or excavation. Toxic organic chemicals are oxidized into carbon dioxide and heavy metals precipitated below plant and vegetation root zone. New water sources: low temperature distilled water can be recycled for repeated use within a greenhouse environment by solar distillation; nano bubble water can be made from the distilled water with nano bubbles of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide from air (fertilizer water) and also eliminate the use of pesticides because the nano oxygen will break the insect growth chain in the larvae state. Three dimensional high yield greenhouses can be constructed by complete water recycling using the vadose zone soil as a filter with no farming wastewater discharge.Keywords: greenhouses, no discharge, remediation of soil and water, wastewater
Procedia PDF Downloads 339705 A Fast Optimizer for Large-scale Fulfillment Planning based on Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Choonoh Lee, Seyeon Park, Dongyun Kang, Jaehyeong Choi, Soojee Kim, Younggeun Kim
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Market Kurly is the first South Korean online grocery retailer that guarantees same-day, overnight shipping. More than 1.6 million customers place an average of 4.7 million orders and add 3 to 14 products into a cart per month. The company has sold almost 30,000 kinds of various products in the past 6 months, including food items, cosmetics, kitchenware, toys for kids/pets, and even flowers. The company is operating and expanding multiple dry, cold, and frozen fulfillment centers in order to store and ship these products. Due to the scale and complexity of the fulfillment, pick-pack-ship processes are planned and operated in batches, and thus, the planning that decides the batch of the customers’ orders is a critical factor in overall productivity. This paper introduces a metaheuristic optimization method that reduces the complexity of batch processing in a fulfillment center. The method is an iterative genetic algorithm with heuristic creation and evolution strategies; it aims to group similar orders into pick-pack-ship batches to minimize the total number of distinct products. With a well-designed approach to create initial genes, the method produces streamlined plans, up to 13.5% less complex than the actual plans carried out in the company’s fulfillment centers in the previous months. Furthermore, our digital-twin simulations show that the optimized plans can reduce 3% of operation time for packing, which is the most complex and time-consuming task in the process. The optimization method implements a multithreading design on the Spring framework to support the company’s warehouse management systems in near real-time, finding a solution for 4,000 orders within 5 to 7 seconds on an AWS c5.2xlarge instance.Keywords: fulfillment planning, genetic algorithm, online grocery retail, optimization
Procedia PDF Downloads 75704 An Echo of Eco: Investigating the Effectiveness of Eco-Friendly Advertising Media of Fashion Brand Communication
Authors: Vaishali Joshi
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In the past, companies and buyers operated as if there was infinite availability of natural resources for usage, which has resulted in the loss of our globe's natural ecosystem. People's consciousness of ecological concerns had increased, which showed the way for the evolution of the green revolution with the objective of discontinuing the use of products that are harmful to the ecosystem of the earth. This green revolution has made the consumers head toward those companies which are providing eco-friendly products s/service s through less eco-harmful ways. Studies show that companies started gaining a reputation in the market through their eco-friendly activities in their business. Hence companies should be alert to understand the consumer's environmentally friendly consumption behavior to survive and be in the game of the competition. Green marketing efforts guarantee beneficial exchanges without harmful consequences for current and /or upcoming generations. This hits the green policies of those companies which are claiming environmental concern. This means that these companies not only focus on the impact of their production and products on the ecosystem but also on every small activity in their value chain. One of the most ignored parts of the value chain is the medium through which the marketing of products/services is done. These companies should also take into account to what degree their selection of advertising media affects the ecosystem of the earth. In this study, a hypothetical fashion apparel brand known as "Dolphin" will be studied. In particular, the following objectives are framed: i) to study the brand attitude of the given fashion brand due to its selection of eco-friendly advertising medium ii) to study the advertisement attitude of the given fashion brand due to its selection of eco-friendly advertising medium and iii) to study the purchase intention of the given fashion brand due to its selection of eco-friendly advertising medium. An online experiment will be conducted. Respondents between the ages of 20-and 64 years will be selected randomly from the online consumer panel database. The findings of this study will have a great impact on the companies that are claiming environmental concerns by understanding how the advertising media is affecting the company’s brand image in the long run.Keywords: eco-friendly advertising media, fashion, attitude, purchase intention
Procedia PDF Downloads 89703 Exposing The Invisible
Authors: Kimberley Adamek
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According to the Council on Tall Buildings, there has been a rapid increase in the construction of tall or “megatall” buildings over the past two decades. Simultaneously, the New England Journal of Medicine has reported that there has been a steady increase in climate related natural disasters since the 1970s; the eastern expansion of the USA's infamous Tornado Alley being just one of many current issues. In the future, this could mean that tall buildings, which already guide high speed winds down to pedestrian levels would have to withstand stronger forces and protect pedestrians in more extreme ways. Although many projects are required to be verified within wind tunnels and a handful of cities such as San Francisco have included wind testing within building code standards, there are still many examples where wind is only considered for basic loading. This typically results in and an increase of structural expense and unwanted mitigation strategies that are proposed late within a project. When building cities, architects rarely consider how each building alters the invisible patterns of wind and how these alterations effect other areas in different ways later on. It is not until these forces move, overpower and even destroy cities that people take notice. For example, towers have caused winds to blow objects into people (Walkie-Talkie Tower, Leeds, England), cause building parts to vibrate and produce loud humming noises (Beetham Tower, Manchester), caused wind tunnels in streets as well as many other issues. Alternatively, there exist towers which have used their form to naturally draw in air and ventilate entire facilities in order to eliminate the needs for costly HVAC systems (The Met, Thailand) and used their form to increase wind speeds to generate electricity (Bahrain Tower, Dubai). Wind and weather exist and effect all parts of the world in ways such as: Science, health, war, infrastructure, catastrophes, tourism, shopping, media and materials. Working in partnership with a leading wind engineering company RWDI, a series of tests, images and animations documenting discovered interactions of different building forms with wind will be collected to emphasize the possibilities for wind use to architects. A site within San Francisco (due to its increasing tower development, consistently wind conditions and existing strict wind comfort criteria) will host a final design. Iterations of this design will be tested within the wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamic systems which will expose, utilize and manipulate wind flows to create new forms, technologies and experiences. Ultimately, this thesis aims to question the amount which the environment is allowed to permeate building enclosures, uncover new programmatic possibilities for wind in buildings, and push the boundaries of working with the wind to ensure the development and safety of future cities. This investigation will improve and expand upon the traditional understanding of wind in order to give architects, wind engineers as well as the general public the ability to broaden their scope in order to productively utilize this living phenomenon that everyone constantly feels but cannot see.Keywords: wind engineering, climate, visualization, architectural aerodynamics
Procedia PDF Downloads 353702 Opportunities for Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer/Questioning Tourism in Vietnam
Authors: Eric D. Olson
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The lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer/questioning tourist (LGBTQ+) travels more frequently, spends more money on travel, and is more likely to travel internationally compared to their straight/heterosexual counterparts. For Vietnam, this represents a huge opportunity to increase international tourism, considering social advancements and recognition of the LGBTQ+ have greatly increased in the past few years in Vietnam. For example, Vietnam’s Health Ministry confirmed in 2022 that same-sex attraction and being transgender is not a mental health condition. A robust hospitality ecosystem of LGBTQ+ tourism suppliers already exists in Vietnam catering to LGBTQ+ tourists (e.g., Gay Hanoi Tours, VietPride). Vietnam is a safe and welcoming destination with incredible nature, cosmopolitan cities, and friendly people; however, there is a dearth of academic and industry research that has examined how LGBTQ+ international tourists perceive Vietnam as an LGBTQ+ friendly destination. To rectify this gap, this research examines Vietnam as an LGBTQ+ destination in order to provide government officials, destination marketers, and industry practitioners with insight into this increasingly visible tourist market segment. A self-administered survey instrument was administered to n=375 international LGBTQ+ tourists to examine their perceptions of Vietnam. A factor analysis found three categories of LGBTQ+ factors of visitation to Vietnam: safety and security (Eigenvalue = 4.12, variance = 32.45, α = .82); LGBTQ+ attractions (Eigenvalue = 3.65 variance = 24.23, α = .75); and friendly interactions (Eigenvalue = 3.71, variance = 10.45, α = .96). Multiple regression was used to examine LGBTQ+ visitation factors and intention to visit Vietnam, F=12.20 (2, 127), p < .001, R2 = .56. Safety and security (β = 0.42, p < .001), LGBTQ+ attractions (β = 0.61, p < .001) and friendly interactions (β = 0.42, p < .001) are predictors to visit Vietnam. Results are consistent with previous research that highlight safety/security is of utmost importance to the community when traveling. Attractions, such as LGBTQ+ tours, suppliers, and festivals can also be used as a pull factor in encouraging tourism. Implications/limitations will be discussed.Keywords: tourism, LGBTQ, vietnam, regression
Procedia PDF Downloads 61701 Contrasting Infrastructure Sharing and Resource Substitution Synergies Business Models
Authors: Robin Molinier
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Industrial symbiosis (I.S) rely on two modes of cooperation that are infrastructure sharing and resource substitution to obtain economic and environmental benefits. The former consists in the intensification of use of an asset while the latter is based on the use of waste, fatal energy (and utilities) as alternatives to standard inputs. Both modes, in fact, rely on the shift from a business-as-usual functioning towards an alternative production system structure so that in a business point of view the distinction is not clear. In order to investigate the way those cooperation modes can be distinguished, we consider the stakeholders' interplay in the business model structure regarding their resources and requirements. For infrastructure sharing (following economic engineering literature) the cost function of capacity induces economies of scale so that demand pooling reduces global expanses. Grassroot investment sizing decision and the ex-post pricing strongly depends on the design optimization phase for capacity sizing whereas ex-post operational cost sharing minimizing budgets are less dependent upon production rates. Value is then mainly design driven. For resource substitution, synergies value stems from availability and is at risk regarding both supplier and user load profiles and market prices of the standard input. Baseline input purchasing cost reduction is thus more driven by the operational phase of the symbiosis and must be analyzed within the whole sourcing policy (including diversification strategies and expensive back-up replacement). Moreover, while resource substitution involves a chain of intermediate processors to match quality requirements, the infrastructure model relies on a single operator whose competencies allow to produce non-rival goods. Transaction costs appear higher in resource substitution synergies due to the high level of customization which induces asset specificity, and non-homogeneity following transaction costs economics arguments.Keywords: business model, capacity, sourcing, synergies
Procedia PDF Downloads 169700 Drugstore Control System Design and Realization Based on Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
Authors: Muhammad Faheem Khakhi, Jian Yu Wang, Salman Muhammad, Muhammad Faisal Shabir
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Population growth and Chinese two-child policy will boost pharmaceutical market, and it will continue to maintain the growth for a period of time in the future, the traditional pharmacy dispensary has been unable to meet the growing medical needs of the peoples. Under the strong support of the national policy, the automatic transformation of traditional pharmacies is the inclination of the Times, the new type of intelligent pharmacy system will continue to promote the development of the pharmaceutical industry. Under this background, based on PLC control, the paper proposed an intelligent storage and automatic drug delivery system; complete design of the lower computer's control system and the host computer's software system has been present. The system can be applied to dispensing work for Chinese herbal medicinal and Western medicines. Firstly, the essential of intelligent control system for pharmacy is discussed. After the analysis of the requirements, the overall scheme of the system design is presented. Secondly, introduces the software and hardware design of the lower computer's control system, including the selection of PLC and the selection of motion control system, the problem of the human-computer interaction module and the communication between PC and PLC solves, the program design and development of the PLC control system is completed. The design of the upper computer software management system is described in detail. By analyzing of E-R diagram, built the establish data, the communication protocol between systems is customize, C++ Builder is adopted to realize interface module, supply module, main control module, etc. The paper also gives the implementations of the multi-threaded system and communication method. Lastly, each module of the lower computer control system is tested. Then, after building a test environment, the function test of the upper computer software management system is completed. On this basis, the entire control system accepts the overall test.Keywords: automatic pharmacy, PLC, control system, management system, communication
Procedia PDF Downloads 296699 An Evaluation of a Prototype System for Harvesting Energy from Pressurized Pipeline Networks
Authors: Nicholas Aerne, John P. Parmigiani
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There is an increasing desire for renewable and sustainable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. This desire is the result of several factors. First, is the role of fossil fuels in climate change. Scientific data clearly shows that global warming is occurring. It has also been concluded that it is highly likely human activity; specifically, the combustion of fossil fuels, is a major cause of this warming. Second, despite the current surplus of petroleum, fossil fuels are a finite resource and will eventually become scarce and alternatives, such as clean or renewable energy will be needed. Third, operations to obtain fossil fuels such as fracking, off-shore oil drilling, and strip mining are expensive and harmful to the environment. Given these environmental impacts, there is a need to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources as a primary energy source. Various sources of renewable energy exist. Many familiar sources obtain renewable energy from the sun and natural environments of the earth. Common examples include solar, hydropower, geothermal heat, ocean waves and tides, and wind energy. Often obtaining significant energy from these sources requires physically-large, sophisticated, and expensive equipment (e.g., wind turbines, dams, solar panels, etc.). Other sources of renewable energy are from the man-made environment. An example is municipal water distribution systems. The movement of water through the pipelines of these systems typically requires the reduction of hydraulic pressure through the use of pressure reducing valves. These valves are needed to reduce upstream supply-line pressures to levels suitable downstream users. The energy associated with this reduction of pressure is significant but is currently not harvested and is simply lost. While the integrity of municipal water supplies is of paramount importance, one can certainly envision means by which this lost energy source could be safely accessed. This paper provides a technical description and analysis of one such means by the technology company InPipe Energy to generate hydroelectricity by harvesting energy from municipal water distribution pressure reducing valve stations. Specifically, InPipe Energy proposes to install hydropower turbines in parallel with existing pressure reducing valves in municipal water distribution systems. InPipe Energy in partnership with Oregon State University has evaluated this approach and built a prototype system at the O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab. The Oregon State University evaluation showed that the prototype system rapidly and safely initiates, maintains, and ceases power production as directed. The outgoing water pressure remained constant at the specified set point throughout all testing. The system replicates the functionality of the pressure reducing valve and ensures accurate control of down-stream pressure. At a typical water-distribution-system pressure drop of 60 psi the prototype, operating at an efficiency 64%, produced approximately 5 kW of electricity. Based on the results of this study, this proposed method appears to offer a viable means of producing significant amounts of clean renewable energy from existing pressure reducing valves.Keywords: pressure reducing valve, renewable energy, sustainable energy, water supply
Procedia PDF Downloads 193698 The Impact of Cryptocurrency Classification on Money Laundering: Analyzing the Preferences of Criminals for Stable Coins, Utility Coins, and Privacy Tokens
Authors: Mohamed Saad, Huda Ismail
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The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of cryptocurrency classification on money laundering crimes and to analyze how the preferences of criminals differ according to the type of digital currency used. Specifically, we aim to explore the roles of stablecoins, utility coins, and privacy tokens in facilitating or hindering money laundering activities and to identify the key factors that influence the choices of criminals in using these cryptocurrencies. To achieve our research objectives, we used a dataset for the most highly traded cryptocurrencies (32 currencies) that were published on the coin market cap for 2022. In addition to conducting a comprehensive review of the existing literature on cryptocurrency and money laundering, with a focus on stablecoins, utility coins, and privacy tokens, Furthermore, we conducted several Multivariate analyses. Our study reveals that the classification of cryptocurrency plays a significant role in money laundering activities, as criminals tend to prefer certain types of digital currencies over others, depending on their specific needs and goals. Specifically, we found that stablecoins are more commonly used in money laundering due to their relatively stable value and low volatility, which makes them less risky to hold and transfer. Utility coins, on the other hand, are less frequently used in money laundering due to their lack of anonymity and limited liquidity. Finally, privacy tokens, such as Monero and Zcash, are increasingly becoming a preferred choice among criminals due to their high degree of privacy and untraceability. In summary, our study highlights the importance of understanding the nuances of cryptocurrency classification in the context of money laundering and provides insights into the preferences of criminals in using digital currencies for illegal activities. Based on our findings, our recommendation to the policymakers is to address the potential misuse of cryptocurrencies for money laundering. By implementing measures to regulate stable coins, strengthening cross-border cooperation, fostering public-private partnerships, and increasing cooperation, policymakers can help prevent and detect money laundering activities involving digital currencies.Keywords: crime, cryptocurrency, money laundering, tokens.
Procedia PDF Downloads 80697 Compromising of Vacuum Sewerage System in Developing Regions and the Impact on Environmet
Authors: Abdelsalam Elawwad, Mostafa Ragab, Hisham Abdel-Halim
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Leakage in sewerage system can cause groundwater and soil contamination in urban areas, especially in area with a high groundwater table. This is a serious problem in small villages in developing countries that rely on ground water as a source for irrigation and drinking purposes. In the developed countries, the recent trend in areas with low population densities is vacuum sewerage system, which is environmentally safer than conventional gravity system, protecting public health, preventing exfiltration to the ground water, very easily applied in a relatively short time and can cope with a faster expansion of the urbanized areas. The aim of this work is to assess the feasibility of using vacuum sewerage in developing country, such as Egypt. Knowledge of local conditions can determine the most suitable sewer system for a specific region. Technical, environmental and financial comparisons between conventional sewerage system and vacuum sewerage system were held using statistical analysis. Different conditions, such as population densities, geometry of area, and ground water depths were evaluated. Sample comprising of 30 Egyptian villages was selected, where a complete design for conventional sewerage system and vacuum sewerage system was done. Based on this study, it is recommended from the environmental point of view to construct the vacuum sewerage system in such villages with low population densities; however, it is not economic for all cases. From financial point of view, vacuum sewerage system was a good competitor to conventional systems in flat areas and areas with high groundwater table. The local market supplying of the construction equipment especially collection chambers will greatly affect the investment cost. Capacity building and social mobilization will also play a great role in sustainability of this system. At the end, it is noteworthy that environmental sustainability and public health are more important than the financial aspects.Keywords: ground water, conventional system, vacuum system, statistics, cost, density, terrain
Procedia PDF Downloads 268696 Legal Aspects in Character Merchandising with Reference to Right to Image of Celebrities
Authors: W. R. M. Shehani Shanika
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Selling goods and services using images, names and personalities of celebrities has become a common marketing strategy identified in modern physical and online markets. Two concepts called globalization and open economy have given numerous reasons to develop businesses to earn higher profits. Therefore, global market plus domestic markets in various countries have vigorously endorsing images of famous sport stars, film stars, singing stars and cartoon characters for the purpose of increasing demand for goods and services rendered by them. It has been evident that these trade strategies have become a threat to famous personalities in financially and personally. Right to the image is a basic human right which celebrities owned to avoid themselves from various commercial exploitations. In this respect, this paper aims to assess whether the law relating to character merchandising satisfactorily protects right to image of celebrities. However, celebrities can decide how much they receive for each representation to the general public. Simply they have exclusive right to decide monetary value for their image. But most commonly every country uses law relating to unfair competition to regulate matters arise thereof. Legal norms in unfair competition are not enough to protect image of celebrities. Therefore, celebrities must be able to avoid unauthorized use of their images for commercial purposes by fraudulent traders and getting unjustly enriched, as their images have economic value. They have the right for use their image for any commercial purpose and earn profits. Therefore it is high time to recognize right to image as a new dimension to be protected in the legal framework of character merchandising. Unfortunately, to the author’s best knowledge there are no any uniform, single international standard which recognizes right to the image of celebrities in the context of character merchandising. The paper identifies it as a controversial legal barrier faced by celebrities in the rapidly evolving marketplace. Finally, this library-based research concludes with proposals to ensure the right to image more broadly in the legal context of character merchandising.Keywords: brand endorsement, celebrity, character merchandising, intellectual property rights, right to image, unfair competition
Procedia PDF Downloads 131695 Detection of Safety Goggles on Humans in Industrial Environment Using Faster-Region Based on Convolutional Neural Network with Rotated Bounding Box
Authors: Ankit Kamboj, Shikha Talwar, Nilesh Powar
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To successfully deliver our products in the market, the employees need to be in a safe environment, especially in an industrial and manufacturing environment. The consequences of delinquency in wearing safety glasses while working in industrial plants could be high risk to employees, hence the need to develop a real-time automatic detection system which detects the persons (violators) not wearing safety glasses. In this study a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm called faster region based CNN (Faster RCNN) with rotated bounding box has been used for detecting safety glasses on persons; the algorithm has an advantage of detecting safety glasses with different orientation angles on the persons. The proposed method of rotational bounding boxes with a convolutional neural network first detects a person from the images, and then the method detects whether the person is wearing safety glasses or not. The video data is captured at the entrance of restricted zones of the industrial environment (manufacturing plant), which is further converted into images at 2 frames per second. In the first step, the CNN with pre-trained weights on COCO dataset is used for person detection where the detections are cropped as images. Then the safety goggles are labelled on the cropped images using the image labelling tool called roLabelImg, which is used to annotate the ground truth values of rotated objects more accurately, and the annotations obtained are further modified to depict four coordinates of the rectangular bounding box. Next, the faster RCNN with rotated bounding box is used to detect safety goggles, which is then compared with traditional bounding box faster RCNN in terms of detection accuracy (average precision), which shows the effectiveness of the proposed method for detection of rotatory objects. The deep learning benchmarking is done on a Dell workstation with a 16GB Nvidia GPU.Keywords: CNN, deep learning, faster RCNN, roLabelImg rotated bounding box, safety goggle detection
Procedia PDF Downloads 122694 Application of Stochastic Models on the Portuguese Population and Distortion to Workers Compensation Pensioners Experience
Authors: Nkwenti Mbelli Njah
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This research was motivated by a project requested by AXA on the topic of pensions payable under the workers compensation (WC) line of business. There are two types of pensions: the compulsorily recoverable and the not compulsorily recoverable. A pension is compulsorily recoverable for a victim when there is less than 30% of disability and the pension amount per year is less than six times the minimal national salary. The law defines that the mathematical provisions for compulsory recoverable pensions must be calculated by applying the following bases: mortality table TD88/90 and rate of interest 5.25% (maybe with rate of management). To manage pensions which are not compulsorily recoverable is a more complex task because technical bases are not defined by law and much more complex computations are required. In particular, companies have to predict the amount of payments discounted reflecting the mortality effect for all pensioners (this task is monitored monthly in AXA). The purpose of this research was thus to develop a stochastic model for the future mortality of the worker’s compensation pensioners of both the Portuguese market workers and AXA portfolio. Not only is past mortality modeled, also projections about future mortality are made for the general population of Portugal as well as for the two portfolios mentioned earlier. The global model was split in two parts: a stochastic model for population mortality which allows for forecasts, combined with a point estimate from a portfolio mortality model obtained through three different relational models (Cox Proportional, Brass Linear and Workgroup PLT). The one-year death probabilities for ages 0-110 for the period 2013-2113 are obtained for the general population and the portfolios. These probabilities are used to compute different life table functions as well as the not compulsorily recoverable reserves for each of the models required for the pensioners, their spouses and children under 21. The results obtained are compared with the not compulsory recoverable reserves computed using the static mortality table (TD 73/77) that is currently being used by AXA, to see the impact on this reserve if AXA adopted the dynamic tables.Keywords: compulsorily recoverable, life table functions, relational models, worker’s compensation pensioners
Procedia PDF Downloads 157693 Nationalization of the Social Life in Argentina: Accumulation of Capital, State Intervention, Labor Market, and System of Rights in the Last Decades
Authors: Mauro Cristeche
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This work begins with a very simple question: How does the State spend? Argentina is witnessing a process of growing nationalization of social life, so it is necessary to find out the explanations of the phenomenon on the specific dynamic of the capitalist mode of production in Argentina and its transformations in the last decades. Then the new question is: what happened in Argentina that could explain this phenomenon? Since the seventies, the capital growth in Argentina faces deep competitive problems. Until that moment the agrarian wealth had worked as a compensation mechanism, but it began to find its limits. In the meantime, some important demographical and structural changes had happened. The strategy of the capitalist class had to become to seek in the cheapness of the labor force the main source of compensation of its weakness. As a result, a tendency to worsen the living conditions and fragmentation of the working class started to develop, manifested by unemployment, underemployment, and the fall of the purchasing power of the salary as a highlighted fact. As a consequence, it is suggested that the role of the State became stronger and public expenditure increased, as a historical trend, because it has to intervene to face the contradictions and constant growth problems posed by the development of capitalism in Argentina. On the one hand, the State has to guarantee the process of buying the cheapened workforce and at the same time the process of reproduction of the working class. On the other hand, it has to help to reproduce the individual capitals but needs to ‘attack’ them in different ways. This is why the role of the State is said to be the general political representative to the national portion of the total social capital. What will be studied is the dynamic of the intervention of the Argentine State in the context of the particular national process of capital growth, and its dynamics in the last decades. What this paper wants to show are the main general causes that could explain the phenomenon of nationalization of the social life and how it has impacted the life conditions of the working class and the system of rights.Keywords: Argentina, nationalization, public policies, rights, state
Procedia PDF Downloads 128692 Smallholder Participation in Organized Retail Markets: Evidence from India
Authors: Kedar Vishnu, Parmod Kumar
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India is becoming most favored retail destination in the world. The organized retail has presented many opportunities to farmers to increase income by shifting cropping pattern from food grains to commercial crops. Previous research revealed potential benefits for farmers by supplying fruits and vegetables to organized retail channels. However the supply of fruits and vegetables from small and marginal farmers remain low than expected. The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors determining market participation of smallholder farmers in modern organized retail chains. Attempt is also made to find out factors influencing the choice of participation in particular organized retail collection centers as compared to other organized retail. The paper was based on primary survey of 40 Beans and Tomato farmers who supply to organized retail collection centers from Karnataka, India. Multiple regression technique is used to identify the factors determining quantity sold at collection centers. The regression result, show that area under vegetables, yield, and price from modern collection center and having access to technical help were found significantly affecting quantity sold into modern organized retail channels. On the opposite, increased rejection rates and vegetable prices at APMC were found influencing farmers decision into the reverse side. Empirical result of the multinomial logit model show that Reliance fresh has tendency to prefer large farmers who can supply more quality and better quantity compared with TESCO and More collection centers. The negative sign of area, having access to technical help, transportation cost, and number of bore wells led to higher probability of farmers to participate in Reliance Fresh collection centers as compared with More and TESCO.Keywords: fruits, vegetables, organized retail markets, multinomial logit model
Procedia PDF Downloads 338691 Corporate Social Responsibility as a Determinant of Sustainability of SME: A Study of House of Tara, a Small Business Operating in Nigeria
Authors: Bolanle Deborah Motilewa, E. K. Rowland Worlu, Gbenga Mayowa Agboola, Ayodele Maxwell Olokundun
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In the pursuit of profit maximization as a major objective of business organizations, several firms forfeit their social and economic responsibility whilst focusing on activities that are deemed to solely profit the firm, without taking into cognizance the effect of their operations on the society in which they operate. Business analysts have, however, realized the determinant role of social responsibility in corporate performance, such that firms that are able to imbibe corporate social responsibility in their core business operations may be able to take advantage of the social reputation gained across their several stakeholders. Small and medium enterprises operating in highly competitive markets are also advised to leverage on this reputation gained from being socially responsible, if they seek ways to remain relevant in the same markets dominated by multinational corporations. Adapting a case study approach, this study highlights the advantages (such as employee and customer loyalty) gained by House of Tara, a small business operating in the beauty and make-up industry in Nigeria, resulting from the firm’s commitment to advancing the society in which it operates through several social responsibility activities. It is observed that although competing with major makeup brands such as MAC, Maybelline, Dior, Mary Kay and others, House of Tara has been able to not only thrive, but gain a sizeable market in the Nigerian makeup industry, because several consumers purchase their products not solely because of the quality or price of their product, but because they perceive themselves as buying into the firm’s CSR vision. This study, therefore, recommends that small and medium enterprises that may lack adequate resources (manpower, technology, capital) needed to successfully compete with multinationals, can harness the potentials in the reputation and loyalty gained from adequate investment in corporate social responsibility.Keywords: corporate social responsibility, small and medium enterprises, House of Tara, sustainability
Procedia PDF Downloads 260690 Structural Vulnerability of Banking Network – Systemic Risk Approach
Authors: Farhad Reyazat, Richard Werner
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This paper contributes to the existent literature by developing a framework that explains how to monitor potential threats to banking sector stability. The study explores structural vulnerabilities at the country level, but also look at bilateral exposures within a network context. The study contributes in analysing of the European banking systemic risk at aggregated level, which integrates the characteristics of bank size, and interconnectedness relative to the size of the economy which ultimate risk belong to, taking to account the concentration ratio of the banking industry within the whole economy. The nature of the systemic risk depends on the interplay of the network topology with the nature of financial transactions over the network, assets and buffer stemming from bank size, correlations, and the nature of the shocks to the financial system. The study’s results illustrate the contribution of banks’ size, size of economy and concentration of counterparty exposures to a given country’s banks in explaining its systemic importance, how much the banking network depends on a few traditional hubs activities and the changes of this dependencies over the last 9 years. The role of few of traditional hubs such as Swiss banks and British Banks and also Irish banks- where the financial sector is fairly new and grew strongly between 1990s till 2008- take the fourth position on 2014 reducing the relative size since 2006 where they had the first position. In-degree concentration index analysis in the study shows concentration index of banking network was not changed since financial crisis 2007-8. In-degree concentration index on first quarter of 2014 indicates that US, UK and Germany together, getting over 70% of the network exposures. The result of comparing the in-degree concentration index with 2007-4Q, shows the same group having over 70% of the network exposure, however the UK getting more important role in the hub and the market share of US and Germany are slightly diminished.Keywords: systemic risk, counterparty risk, financial stability, interconnectedness, banking concentration, european banks risk, network effect on systemic risk, concentration risk
Procedia PDF Downloads 479689 An Exploration of German Tourists’ Market Demand Towards Ethiopian Tourist Destinations
Authors: Dagnew Dessie Mengie
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The purpose of this study was to investigate German tourists' demand for Ethiopian tourism destinations. The author has made every effort to identify the differences in the preferences of German visitors’ demand in Ethiopia comparing with Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and South African tourism sectors if they are invited to visit at the same time. However, the demand for international tourism for Ethiopia currently lags behind these African countries. Therefore, to offer demand-driven tourism products, the Ethiopian government and tour and travel operators need to understand the important factors that affect international tourists’ decision to visit Ethiopian tourist destinations. The aim of this study was to analyze German Tourists’ Demand for Ethiopian destinations. The researcher aimed to identify the demand for German tourists’ preference for Ethiopian tourist destinations compared to the above-mentioned African countries. For collecting and analysing data for this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods of research are being used in this study. The most significant data are collected by using the primary data collection method i.e. survey and interviews which are the most and large number of potential responses and feedback from nine German active tourists,12 Ethiopian tourism officials, four African embassies, and four well functioning private tour companies and secondary data collected from books, journals, previous research and electronic websites. Based on the data analysis of the information gathered from interviews and questionnaires, the study disclosed that the majority of German tourists do have not that high demand for Ethiopian Tourist destinations due to the following reasons: (1) Many Germans are fascinated by adventures and safari and simply want to lie on the beach and relax. These interests have leaded them to look for other African countries which have these accesses. (2) Uncomfortable infrastructure and transport problems are attributed to the decreasing number of German tourists in the country. (3) Inadequate marketing operation of the Ethiopian Tourism Authority and its delegates in advertising and clarifying the above irregularities which are raised by the tourists.Keywords: environmental benefits of tourism, social benefits of tourism, economic benefits of tourism, political factors on tourism
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