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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | David Birchall (Henley Management College - [Henley Management College]); Jean-Jacques Chanarron (GATE - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - [CNRS : UMR5824] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines], EMSI - Ecole de Management des Systèmes d'Information - [Ecole de Management de Grenoble]); Josiena Gotzsch (EMSI - Ecole de Management des Systèmes d'Information - [Ecole de Management de Grenoble]) |
| Abstract: | Creating outstanding products is vital for a company's endurance in competitive markets. A mix of functionality, ergonomics, aesthetics, symbols and price aspects all play a role in making a product desirable.<br />Some products carry a personal meaning for its user. Others communicate its user's identity or the company's brand image. This study concentrates on communicative and meaningful aspects in a product's design. It examines how the creation of a communicative design occurs during the new product development process. The present research has an exploratory nature. For the field research, the case study method was chosen and a guideline for semi-directed interviews developed. This interview guideline was used to analyse multiple product development projects in two distinct companies. In two projects, specific attention was given to communicative aspects in the product‘s design. These two projects are examined in this paper.<br /><br />In the two selected projects, the product development teams carefully studied the users' preferences for aesthetics and product messages. A user-centred approach was used in both development processes. The choice to purposely improve the communicative value of the product's design was on the one hand influenced by the limited possibilities to create other advantages, such as improving the product's functionality or reducing its cost price. A weakness in the competitor's design strategy allowed the successful improvement of the product's communication on the other hand. |
| Keywords: | User-centred Product ; Design Management Process ; New Product Development Process ; Development Product Expression ; Product Meaning ; Product Language ; Product Value |
| Date: | 2007–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00135751_v1&r=ppm |
| By: | L. Ingber |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lei:ingber:07ro&r=ppm |
| By: | Beckerman, Carina (Dept. of Business Administration, Stockholm School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The contribution of this paper is a discussion about how the patient as a phenomenon is constructed and used by employees for different purposes, enabling and inhibiting change. The results are based on a three year case study in which data has been collected with interviews and observations. They have then been analyzed and interpreted within a framework consisting of theories about thinking collectives, structuration, information and knowledge management. The findings indicate that “the patient” has implications for how project management is conducted and a patient record upgraded at the anesthesia and intensive care unit of a hospital. |
| Keywords: | the patient; anesthesia information management; constructionism; thinking collectives; knowledge management; structuration. |
| Date: | 2007–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastba:2007_004&r=ppm |
| By: | Jens Ludwig; Deborah A. Phillips |
| Abstract: | In this essay we review what is known about Head Start and argue that the program is likely to generate benefits to participants and society as a whole that are large enough to justify the program's costs. Our conclusions differ importantly from those offered in some previous reviews because we use a more appropriate standard to judge the success of Head Start (namely, benefit-cost analysis), draw on new accumulating evidence for Head Start's long-term effects on early cohorts of program participants, and discuss why common interpretations of a recent randomized experimental evaluation of Head Start's short-term impacts may be overly pessimistic. While in principle there could be more beneficial ways of deploying Head Start resources, the benefits of such changes remain uncertain and there is some downside risk. |
| JEL: | H43 I2 I3 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12973&r=ppm |
| By: | Alain Bonnafous (LET - Laboratoire d'économie des transports - [CNRS : UMR5593] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat]) |
| Abstract: | L'une des expressions les plus significatives du sous-développement est la contradiction entre l'importance des besoins en investissement et la faible capacité à les financer. Cela vaut évidemment pour la sphère privée mais la contradiction est beaucoup plus forte encore pour la sphère publique, le secteur des transports et ses infrastructures étant tout particulièrement concernés. Il en résulte une obligation très ordinaire en économie : plus rare est la ressource, plus il importe d'en faire un usage optimal. Ce principe s'est concrétisé par le fait que pendant des décennies, les évaluations des projets imposées par les bailleurs de fond ont été plus méticuleuses dans les pays en développement que celles que s'imposaient les pays industrialisés. Pour autant, le bilan de ces décennies n'est pas extraordinairement positif. L'une des principales raisons tient au fait que les dettes contractées pour le financement des projets n'ont pas toujours pu être amorties par les surplus économiques dégagés par les projets, que ces surplus se soient perdus dans les sables ou qu'ils aient été moins importants que prévus. La conséquence la plus visible de ces expériences est l'affaissement des crédits affectés aux grands projets d'infrastructure. Cependant, une autre conséquence n'est pas moins importante, qui consiste en une évolution progressive vers des modes de financement différents : celui-ci peut être en tout ou partie assuré par l'usager et non plus seulement par les finances publiques. Cette communication montre que cette évolution conduit à modifier radicalement la logique de l'évaluation des projets et, par conséquent, de l'élaboration des programmes d'investissement. C'est ainsi que la rentabilité financière se révèle un meilleur critère que la rentabilité socio-économique pour déterminer l'ordre de programmation des projets qui produit le meilleur rendement social. |
| Keywords: | Besoins en investissement ; financement des projets ; programmes d'investissement ; secteur des transports ; évaluation des projets |
| Date: | 2007–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00112271_v1&r=ppm |
| By: | Minniti, Antonio |
| Abstract: | Multi-product firms dominate production activity in the global economy. There is widespread evidence showing that large corporations improve their efficiency by increasing the scale of their operations; this objective can be realized either by consistently investing in R&D or by expanding the product range. In this paper, we explore the implications of this fact by embedding multi-product firms in a General Equilibrium model of endogenous growth. We analyze an economy with oligopolistic firms that carry out in-house R&D programs in order to achieve cost-reducing innovations. Market structure is endogenous in the model and is jointly determined by the number of firms and the number of product varieties per firm. Both economies of scope and scale characterize the economic environment. We show that the market equilibrium involves too many firms (too much inter-firm diversity) and too few products per firm (too little intra-firm diversity); moreover, we find out that the total number of products and productivity growth are inefficiently low under laissez-faire. The nature of these distortions is discussed in detail. |
| Keywords: | imperfect competition; multi-product firms; endogenous growth; R&D |
| JEL: | E0 O31 O3 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2097&r=ppm |
| By: | Pizer, William A. (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that while a long-term solution to climate change may require the global market-based solution envisioned in the Kyoto Protocol, a more flexible near-term approach is necessary. First, a broad range of domestic policies need to be embraced and encouraged by an international agreement, not constrained or discouraged by it. Second, developing countries need to be an increased focus of engagement, with expansion and reform of project-based crediting. Finally, a global agreement needs to recognize both technology and mitigation policies and to develop ways to evaluate efforts along each of these dimensions. Over the longer term, such an agreement should evolve toward greater reliance on global market-based solutions, and therefore near-term steps should be viewed both in terms of their immediate practicality and their potential to be refined over time. |
| Keywords: | climate change, international treaty, Kyoto, emissions trading |
| JEL: | H87 Q54 D62 D63 |
| Date: | 2007–02–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-07-03&r=ppm |
| By: | Wilson, Tetevi Bahun; Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a few general comments on the nature and economic value of industrial minerals and rocks and the need for an increased exploitation and use of these materials in developing countries. These materials are of great economic value as main raw materials for the construction, glass, abrasive, paper, chemical, ceramics, metallurgical and agricultural industries. Developing countries dispose of many of these materials, and could derive greater economic benefits from them. Per capita consumption of industrial mineral products continues to grow in developed countries and part of this demand could be met by exports from developing countries. The paper describes some of the issues to be addressed and steps to be taken if developing countries are to gain from industrial minerals and rocks |
| Keywords: | Economic value industrial minerals and rocks; consumption industrial minerals and rocks; production industrial minerals and rocks; developing countries benefit minerals and roc |
| JEL: | O17 O13 Q38 Q31 Q32 O22 Q30 O21 |
| Date: | 2007–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2214&r=ppm |
| By: | Leenheer, J.; Heerde, H.J. van; Bijmolt, T.H.A.; Smidts, A. (Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), RSM Erasmus University) |
| Abstract: | One of the pressing issues in marketing is whether loyalty programs really enhance behavioral loyalty. Loyalty program members may have a much higher share-of-wallet at the firm with the loyalty program than non-members have, but this does not necessarily imply that loyalty programs are effective. Loyal customers may select themselves to become members in order to benefit from the program. Since this implies that program membership is endogenous, we estimate models for both the membership decision (using instrumental variables) and for the effect of membership on share-of-wallet, our measure of behavioral loyalty. We use panel data from a representative sample of Dutch households who report their loyalty program memberships for all seven loyalty programs in grocery retailing as well as their expenditures at each of the 20 major supermarket chains. We find a small positive yet significant effect of loyalty program membership on share-of-wallet. This effect is seven times smaller than is suggested by a na?ve model that ignores the endogeneity of program membership. The predictive validity of the proposed model is much better than for the na?ve model. Our results show that creating loyalty program membership is a crucial step to enhance share-of-wallet, and we provide guidelines how to achieve this. |
| Keywords: | Loyalty programs;Grocery retailing;Endogeneity;Tobit-II model;Attraction models; |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:30009938&r=ppm |
| By: | Julia Hirsch (Universidad Iberoamerica and CFS) |
| Abstract: | The effects of public policy programs which aim at internalizing spill-overs due to successful innovation are analyzed in a sequential double-sided moral hazard doublesided adverse selection framework. The central focus lies in analyzing their impact on contract design. We show that in our framework only ex post grants are a robust instrument for implementing the first-best situation, whereas the success of guarantee programs, ex ante grants and some types of investment grants depends strongly on the characteristics of the project: in certain cases they not only give no further incentives but even destroy contract mechanisms and so worsen the outcome. |
| Keywords: | Public Policy, Contract Design, Venture Capital, Moral Hazard, Asymmetric Information |
| JEL: | D82 G24 G32 H25 H81 |
| Date: | 2006–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfs:cfswop:wp200629&r=ppm |
| By: | Hans J. Baumgartner; Marco Caliendo |
| Abstract: | Turning unemployment into self-employment has become a major focus of German active labour market policy (ALMP) in recent years. If effective, this would not only reduce Germany's persistently high unemployment rate, but also increase its notoriously low self-employment rate. Empirical evidence on the effectiveness of such programmes is scarce. The contribution of the present paper is twofold: first, we evaluate the effectiveness of two start-up programmes for the unemployed. Our outcome variables include the probability of being employed, the probability of being unemployed, and personal income. Second, based on the results of this analysis, we conduct an efficiency analysis, i.e., we estimate whether the Federal Employment Agency has saved money by placing unemployed individuals in these programmes. Our results show that at the end of the observation period, both programmes are effective and one is also efficient. The considerable positive effects present a stark contrast to findings from evaluations of other German ALMP programmes in recent years. Hence, ALMP programmes aimed at moving the unemployed into self-employment may prove to be among the most effective, both in Germany and elsewhere |
| Keywords: | Start-up subsidies, evaluation, effectiveness, efficiency, self-employment |
| JEL: | J68 C14 H43 M13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp671&r=ppm |