Lithium ion batteries are quintessential components of modern life. They are used to power smart devices — phones, tablets, laptops, and are rapidly becoming major elements in the automotive industry. Demand projections for lithium are skyrocketing with production struggling to keep up pace. This drive is due mostly to the…
Lithium ion batteries are quintessential components of modern life. They are used to power smart devices — phones, tablets, laptops, and are rapidly becoming major elements in the automotive industry. Demand projections for lithium are skyrocketing with production struggling to keep up pace. This drive is due mostly to the rapid adoption of electric vehicles; sales of electric vehicles in 2020 are more than double what they were only a year prior. With such staggering growth it is important to understand how lithium is sourced and what that means for the environment. Will production even be capable of meeting the demand as more industries make use of this valuable element? How will the environmental impact of lithium affect growth? This thesis attempts to answer these questions as the world looks to a decade of rapid growth for lithium ion batteries.
As more goods and processes are digitalized and available online, supply chains began to transact digitalized goods and processes that do not involve physical distribution. This dissertation defines this type of supply chain as “digital supply chain” and aims to extend the knowledge for better management of digital supply chains.…
As more goods and processes are digitalized and available online, supply chains began to transact digitalized goods and processes that do not involve physical distribution. This dissertation defines this type of supply chain as “digital supply chain” and aims to extend the knowledge for better management of digital supply chains. Digital goods are granularly codifiable and easily duplicatable, and digital processes are less constrained by time and distance. For these reasons, compared to conventional supply chains, digital supply chains have the following features: the delivery of goods is faster; the innovation cycle is shorter; post-sales product modification is easier; and customers switch between the providers of alternative goods more frequently and easily. Given these traits of digital supply chains, this dissertation focuses on the timing of firms’ actions and their consequences under the consideration of dynamic interactions with competitors, customers, and business environments. The dissertation consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 briefly introduces the concept and issues of digital supply chains. Chapter 2 investigates how a service provider’s failure leads to a competing firm’s responsive innovation in the innovation-driven digital service industry. Chapter 3 demonstrates the relationship between market environments and innovation cycles in the innovation-driven digital service industry. Lastly, Chapter 4 studies evolving supply chain cyber-vulnerability from the perspective of agency theory.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries took serious measures to control its spread and reduce its effect on health, social, and economic aspects. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has taken unprecedented preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19, including complete lockdowns and the closing of some businesses. Therefore, 27%…
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries took serious measures to control its spread and reduce its effect on health, social, and economic aspects. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has taken unprecedented preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19, including complete lockdowns and the closing of some businesses. Therefore, 27% of companies expected to lose their businesses within a month, while 43% of companies expected to go out of business within six months. This was not only due to the countrywide lockdown, or the impacts caused by the pandemic, but also due to the bad leadership of some leaders during this crisis. There are little of studies and data that discuss the consequences of these decisions on businesses, and it will be helpful to measure the consequences over three years. This study answers the following question: How much did myopic staffing and compensation decisions in the context of COVID-19 affect companies’ performance? To answer this question, I use agent-based modeling (ABM) supported by secondary data to create a simulation to study the consequences of myopic decisions made on employees’ performance in the private sector in the United Arab Emirates starting from the 2020 year and through an anticipated period of 3 years . The study found that under the assumptions that pay deductions, layoffs, and unpaid leaves, are myopic decisions and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the companies’ performance, there is a huge affect on companies’ performance over the study period which is 3 years.
Keywords: bad leadership, myopic decisions, companies, businesses, COVID-19, agent-based model.
This paper focuses on the path of business model digitalization and its impact on corporate performance, and empirically tests the relationship between the path of business model digitalization and corporate performance of listed companies in China.The empirical results show that: digital transformation will improve enterprise performance, the technological innovation capability…
This paper focuses on the path of business model digitalization and its impact on corporate performance, and empirically tests the relationship between the path of business model digitalization and corporate performance of listed companies in China.The empirical results show that: digital transformation will improve enterprise performance, the technological innovation capability of enterprises helps to improve the business performance of enterprises; the level of enterprise technological innovation has a strengthening effect on the positive impact of digitalization on enterprise performance; corporate financing constraints will weaken the positive effect of corporate digital transformation on corporate performance; the improvement of technological innovation capability is conducive to the improvement of the performance of digital transformation enterprises; technological innovation of manufacturing enterprises is difficult to have a greater impact on enterprise performance by improving production efficiency.
Based on the empirical results of this paper, in order to fully grasp the development opportunities of the digital economy, the government should take the digital transformation of enterprises as a way to help enterprises develop with high quality. At the industrial level, we should promote the digital transformation of economic industries based on the principle of differentiation. At the enterprise level, we should strengthen the financial services and R&D investment that match the financing needs of enterprises, effectively play the positive regulatory role of enterprises' technological innovation ability on the performance of enterprises' digital transformation, and effectively weaken the negative regulatory role of financing constraints on the performance of enterprises' digital transformation.
As Charles Darwin’s evolution theory reveals, it is not the strongest species that survive, but those most responsive to change. This principle also applies in the realm of operations management, where managers shall creatively redesign operations to address new challenges. This dissertation presents three cases where renovating traditional operations cost-effectively…
As Charles Darwin’s evolution theory reveals, it is not the strongest species that survive, but those most responsive to change. This principle also applies in the realm of operations management, where managers shall creatively redesign operations to address new challenges. This dissertation presents three cases where renovating traditional operations cost-effectively solves emerging problems, including fraudulent reviews on online platforms (Chapter 1), inefficient strategy design of advertisers (Chapter 2), and inadequate user participation in global procurement initiatives (Chapter 3). I demonstrate that such a practice not only enhances operational efficiency but promotes social welfare. The first two chapters examine operational renovation in the private sector, while the third focuses on the public sector. Specifically, Chapter 1 investigates sellers’ review manipulation on e-commerce platforms and shows that platforms may not be as committed to combating fake reviews as they claim to be. To mitigate this problem, I craft a game-theoretic model and illustrate that restructuring return policies – an essential, long-established operation – can inhibit review manipulation. Chapter 2 analyzes geofencing, an emerging advertising strategy that enables advertisers to send ads to consumers within a virtual fencing zone. While extant literature shows the usefulness of geofencing, the optimal implementation of the strategy remains unclear. Therefore, I analytically examine the optimal operations of geofencing. The findings suggest that the typical practice of setting the geofence around the advertiser’s store is not cost-efficient. Advertisers shall think outside of the box and consider placing the fencing zone elsewhere. My proposed geofencing location and radius could increase resource utilization, advertising efficacy, and consumer welfare. Chapter 3 switches the focus to the public sector, addressing the unaffordability of health products in low- to middle-income countries (LMICs). Social planners have managed procurement pools to help LMICs access health products, yet countries’ willingness to join the pool can vary greatly. A lack of country participation would jeopardize the success of pooled procurement. To encourage more countries to join, I design a procurement mechanism that considers countries’ heterogeneous preferences, disease burdens, and ability to pay. This proposed mechanism, with an appropriately designed subsidy plan, could maximize the aggregate social welfare.
This report discusses the trade-offs of electric vehicles at both the macro-level and the consumer-level. The idea of this project is to address the factors that will affect many people, which are the macro-level trade-offs. Consumer-level trade-offs will address the concerns that individual consumers have when buying a car. The…
This report discusses the trade-offs of electric vehicles at both the macro-level and the consumer-level. The idea of this project is to address the factors that will affect many people, which are the macro-level trade-offs. Consumer-level trade-offs will address the concerns that individual consumers have when buying a car. The macro-level trade-offs that are discussed include batteries versus engines, increased weight, and strain on the power grid. Consumer-level trade-offs include price, maintenance, cost of ownership, and safety. Electric cars are the future, and although the report points out a lot of potential issues, it is not meant to detract from the adoption of electric vehicles. There are so many possibilities regarding the future of the car industry and there is a lot to look forward to despite the current and future issues that will be encountered.
Nonprofits and humanitarian organizations play a critical role in the modern world. Yet, to operate sustainably, they often encounter challenges including financial insecurity and operational obstacles. My dissertation investigates nonprofits' decisions and strategies for delivering sustainable services from the perspectives of financial security and operations in short- and long-term horizons.The…
Nonprofits and humanitarian organizations play a critical role in the modern world. Yet, to operate sustainably, they often encounter challenges including financial insecurity and operational obstacles. My dissertation investigates nonprofits' decisions and strategies for delivering sustainable services from the perspectives of financial security and operations in short- and long-term horizons.The first chapter is focused on the role of governance quality in nonprofits' donation income. Donors, generally, support charities that maintain higher program spending ratios (PSR). Yet, PSR does not reflect charities' actual social impact, and a focus on PSR may eventually limit their capacity in providing humanitarian aid. Since 2008, as a result of a policy change by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, nonprofits are able to better display their governance quality. My empirical investigation shows that governance quality is now an important factor in driving donations to nonprofits, although PSR still remains a key driver. Results suggest that nonprofits should consider improving their governance quality in their strategies for securing donation income, although that may lead to lower PSRs.
Pressures resulted from the focus on PSR encourage nonprofits to prioritize strategies that enable them to report higher program expenses. In the second chapter, I empirically examine one of these strategies, grant provision, that allows nonprofits to increase their reported program expenses without having to spend their funds on their own programs. I find that providing grants to other organizations enables nonprofits to earn more revenue and make a bigger social impact in the long term, but this strategy increases the administrative burden needed to make an impact.
Given the challenges in coordination and lack of effective coordinated response in humanitarian operations, in the third chapter, I develop a non-cooperative game theoretical model to analyze horizontal coordination among non-governmental organizations in disaster relief operations in centralized and decentralized models. I show that coordination does not always maximize social welfare, and time inefficiencies due to bureaucracies involved in coordination mechanisms are substantial obstacles against higher levels of coordination, especially in urgent response operations. I also show that decentralization of coordination mechanisms increases both coordination levels and social welfare.