Search

This study proposes a novel approach to forecast a transhipment port's competitiveness on the basis of market share. The potential reasons for escalating or diminishing competitiveness are explored by utilising a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodology. We assess the competitiveness of transhipment ports by seven major components: connectivity, port facility, efficiency, cost factor, policy and management, information systems and green port management, and contribute to the understanding of the interdependence among the components. We investigate the Bangladesh container market due to the uniqueness of its regional context and dimensions of competitiveness. Bangladesh has direct connections to four regional hubs, namely, Singapore, Colombo, Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas. These regional hubs compete to grasp a significant volume of container movements in line with the rapid growth of Bangladesh's industrialisation and national economy. We find that Singapore outperforms others in terms of competitiveness, but all ports perform below expectations in green port management practices. These findings would benefit port authorities for improving their competitiveness, and liner shipping companies and shippers in making strategic port choice decisions.

Wireless dynamic charging (WDC), while the vehicle is in motion, perceived as an enabling technology to mass roll-out of electric vehicles. High output power with minimized pulsation (ripple) is the key-success for such a technology. This paper is presenting a parametric-analysis procedure, aiming at providing design tools for coupler coils of three-phase WDC to achieve specific efficiency and cost requirement. A general design procedure is proposed for a high power WDC system supported by extensive analytical analysis and finite-element analysis (FEA) simulations for wide ranges of transmitter and receiver dimensions, constrained by the stray fields level limitation. Subsequently, other parameters such as the resonant tank are then recalculated to satisfy the system specification. The calculated efficiency is derived according to the loss model of every single component while a cost model is utilized to determine the associated cost, where the tradeoff between efficiency and cost is obtained by parametric-analysis results. The viability of the proposed procedure is experimentally validated using a 3-kW WDC prototype. The practical results show that the efficiency of 88.2% is achievable with an air gap of 15 cm and a normalized cost factor of 0.845.

Aircraft powered by green hydrogen (H2) are a lever for the aviation sector to reduce the climate impact. Previous research already focused on evaluations of H2 aircraft technology, but analyses on infrastructure related cost factors are rarely undertaken. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a holistic overview of previous efforts and introduces an approach to assess the importance of a H2 infrastructure for aviation. A short- and a medium-range aircraft are modelled and modified for H2 propulsion. Based on these, a detailed cost analysis is used to compare both aircraft and infrastructure related direct operating costs (DOC). Overall, it is shown that the economy of H2 aviation highly depends on the availability of low-cost, green liquid hydrogen (LH2) supply infrastructure. While total DOC might even slightly decrease in a best LH2 cost case, total DOC could also increase between 10 and 70% (short-range) and 15–102% (medium-range) due to LH2 costs alone.

Producing Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) via Power-to-Gas (PtG) is favourable for two reasons; it can be substituted for natural gas in the gas network, and it enables CO2 recycling as energy systems transition towards a low-carbon future. However, the expensive SNG production process is a barrier to being cost-competitive with other market gases. Several diverse factors influence SNG production cost, which results in several possible process configurations with varying performance which influence it. The hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) required to produce SNG are available from multiple sources, while the SNG production cost is also influenced by the capital investment required for PtG process units, interim storage facilities, and operating expenses. Hence, an in-depth analysis of the factors affecting SNG production is required to understand their effect on the cost and to provide information on cost savings, economic implications, and optimal SNG production setup for decision-makers. In this paper, an optimisation algorithm is developed to model the PtG process units. The main objective of this work is to determine optimal process configurations for SNG production by analysing its influencing cost factors. A factorial design approach is integrated into the optimisation process to minimise the production cost by choosing the cost-effective process configurations. This work also determines the factors with a significant influence on the production cost using an ANOVA. The algorithm identifies the cost-effective H2 and CO2 source to obtain the least expensive SNG production setup. Based on the values of the cost factors, strategies for lowering the production cost in an existing setup are identified. The factors with the most influence on the SNG production cost are the capacity and capex of the methanator unit

Competition between one-way car-sharing operators is currently increasing. Fleet relocation as a means to compensate demand imbalances constitutes a major cost factor in a business with low profit margins. Existing decision support models have so far ignored the aspect of a competitor when the fleet is rebalanced for better availability. We present mixed-integer linear programming formulations for a pickup and delivery orienteering problem under different business models with multiple (competing) operators. Structural solution properties, including existence of equilibria and bounds on losses as a result of competition, of the competitive pickup and delivery problem under the restrictions of unit-demand stations, homogeneous payoffs, and indifferent customers based on results for congestion games are derived. Two algorithms to find a Nash equilibrium for real-life instances are proposed. One can find equilibria in the most general case; the other can only be applied if the game can be represented as a congestion game, that is, under the restrictions of homogeneous payoffs, unit-demand stations, and indifferent customers. In a numerical study, we compare different business models for car-sharing operations, including a merger between operators and outsourcing relocation operations to a common service provider (coopetition). Gross profit improvements achieved by explicitly incorporating competitor decisions are substantial, and the presence of competition decreases gross profits for all operators (compared with a merger). Using a Munich, Germany, case study, we quantify the gross profit gains resulting from considering competition as approximately 35% (over assuming absence of competition) and 12% (over assuming that the competitor is omnipresence) and the losses because of the presence of competition to be approximately 10%.

This paper presents a real-time 3D LiDAR mapping framework based on global matching cost minimization. The proposed method constructs a factor graph that directly minimizes matching costs between frames over the entire map, unlike pose graph-based approaches that minimize errors in the pose space. For real-time global matching cost minimization, we use a voxel data association-based GICP matching cost factor that is able to fully leverage GPU parallel processing. The combination of the matching cost factor and GPU computation enables constraint of the relative pose between frames with a small overlap and creation of a densely connected factor graph. The mapping process is managed based on a voxel-based overlap metric that can quickly be evaluated on a GPU. We incorporate the proposed method with an external loop detection method in order to help the voxel-based matching cost factors to avoid convergence in a local solution. The experimental result on the KITTI dataset shows that the proposed approach improves the estimation accuracy of long trajectories., IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Video: https://youtu.be/TarRKF_Xd2E

PurposeThis paper proposes an evaluation model for prefabricated construction to guide a supply chain with controllable costs. Prefabricated construction is prevalent due to area limitations. Nevertheless, the development is limited by budget control and identifying the factors affecting cost. The degree of close collaboration in the supply chain is closely interconnected with cost performance that includes direct and indirect factors. This paper not only quantizes these factors but also distinguishes the degree of influence of various factors.Design/methodology/approachSystem dynamics is applied to simulate and analyze the construction cost factors through Vensim software. It can also clarify the relationship between cost and other influencing factors. The input data are collected from an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled system under a Building Information Modeling (BIM) system and Hong Kong government reports.FindingsSimulation results indicate that prefabricated construction cost is mainly influenced by government promotion degree (GPD), working pressure from on-site construction (WPOSC), prefab quality (PQ), load-bearing capacity per vehicle (LBPV) and mold quality (MQ). However, it is more sensitive toward GPD, which indicates that the government should take measures to promote this construction technology. On-site worker management is also essential for the assembly process and indirectly influences the construction cost.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper quantifies indirect influential factors to clarify the specific features for prefabricated construction. The investigated factors are limited.Practical implicationsThe contractor can identify all factors and classify the levels of influence to make decisions under the supply chain system boundary.Social implicationsThe input data are collected from an IoT-enabled system under a BIM system and Hong Kong government reports. Thus, the relationship between construction cost influential factors can be investigated.Originality/valueThis paper quantifies indirect influencing factors and clarifies the specific features in prefabricated construction. The contractor could identify these factors to make decisions and classify the levels of influence under the supply chain system boundary.

In today’s market, supply chain players have to cooperate mutually for extra benefits, long lasting paybacks, and to control carbon emission for a clean environment. In this study, a two-echelon sustainable supply chain model with a supplier–retailer scenario is considered to investigate the overlooked area of growing items and reducing carbon emissions. These joint effects will benefit the firms for interim financing as well as minimize carbon emission for a clean environment. The main task for the supplier is to breed new-born animals with respect to a biologic growth pattern, then slaughters them and controls the carbon emission to maintain the sustainability. The supplier then delivers the slaughtered items to the retailer where it is used as final products to satisfy customers demand and also experienced deterioration during the inventory replenishment cycle. Carbon emission is considered due to transportation of slaughtered items to the retailer. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the model under decentralized and centralized chain structures and in the centralized case profit-sharing contract is incorporated as the cooperation tool. The model has been solved with an analytic solution approach to obtain the global optimum solution. Sensitivity analysis is carried out to investigate the impact of different input parameters. The results support the claim that centralized chain structure can provide the partners with more benefits if an appropriate coordination mechanism is applied. Moreover, it is shown that the unit purchasing cost of each echelon has a significant effect on the profit in comparison to the other cost factors. Finally the results reveal that the supplier’s inventory cycle is more dependent on the growth pattern rather than external cost factors.

With the rapid increase in the functionality of IoT applications, the services provided by edge/IoT devices have surged in the recent past. Fog computing is gaining momentum as a contemporary computational framework for IoT-enabled smart applications that offers a latency sensitivity advantage over cloud computing. Effective task scheduling reduces application computation and latency durations while improves QoS. Many researchers have proposed a variety of heuristic and metaheuristic approaches for effective scheduling; however, there is still scope for improvement. The present work proposes a hybrid of heuristic and metaheuristic techniques for the scheduling of tasks. fireworks algorithm (FWA) is a metaheuristic algorithm, and Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time (HEFT) is a heuristic algorithm. The bi-objective optimization approach is presented to minimize the makespan and cost factors. To compare the performance of the algorithm, the experiments have been conducted on distinct and independent scientific workflows. The results of exhaustive simulations have established the significance of the presented BH-FWA algorithm over other comparative approaches. To validate the relevance of the technique for fog computing networks, the metrics utilized for comparisons are makespan, cost, and throughput.

We perform this study in order to enhance management of accounting functions in firms, esp. In the case of Hoi An Tourism company in Vietnam.Before covid 19 Vienam tourism has developed fast and achieved high growth, but during covid 19 Vietnam tourism sector has been affected so much, with declining GDP contribution and tourism unemployment.This study mainly use combination of quantitative methods (statistics, calculation formulas) and qualitative methods including synthesis, inductive and explanatory methods.Our study findings tell us that all cost factors such as COGS and sale cost and administrative expense have negative relationship with accounting net profit.Besides, this study also give out recommendations for suitable financial accounting processes and policies as well as directions or implications for tourism management in post-covid in future.

This paper empirically investigates the impact of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on foreign direct investment (FDI) using data on British multinational firms’ outward FDI in a panel of 140 countries across 2009-2017. We apply the Knowledge-Capital model to demonstrate that BITs act as a market access mechanism to parent country multinational enterprises. Our core result confirms the negative impact of BIT membership on horizontal FDI in the host economy. This result is robust to changes in partner sample composition, hypothetical stock levels, and inclusion of trade policies. Our findings imply that factor cost advantages are unable to compensate for the adverse effect of BIT entry, which raises concerns regarding the potency of BIT-centered development policies.

This study is conducted based on a real case study - AGIFISH company (AGF) in An Giang province, Vietnam, which use OLS regression model to measure impacts from internal cost factors (COGS, sale cost, admin expense) on accounting net profit of the firm. Authors mainly use combination of quantitative methods (statistics, calculation formulas) and qualitative methods including synthesis, inductive and explanatory methods, combined with dialectical materialism method. Our study findings show us that Cost-income ratio has negative relationship with accounting net profit whereas COGS and sale cost have negative correlation with net profit. Besides, this study also give out recommendations for enhancing management accounting policies in the company. For instance AGF management need to control COGS better and reduce COGS/income ratio to increase accounting net profit. Our limitation of research is that we can expand researches to further industries and markets.

Human resources which are needed is cost factor due to central to providing services in an organization .Any methods and its aims the organization was created based on the range of vision for the benefit of man and in the implementation of the mission is managed by human beings .Be a man of the main factor of a strategic part of all activities of the organization .The purpose of this research is to know the deployment of an officer at offices of head of subdistricts sebulu in Kutai Kartanegara regency. Then the kind of research that is used is identification descriptive of by the use of of a quantitative approach where is trying in giving a snapshot of the outline or explanation of the an accurate assessment of the areas that can be analyzed in terms of interprestasy and a detailed explanation of existing data shows that in an unsystematic manner based on obyektivitas which appeared to be or as they always have so as to give a picture in on totally objective criteria about the actual state of things of an object that is analyzed in terms of .The results of the study viewed from the side of dimensions expertise be on a level either by the percentage 78,05% and the average score 3.90 dimensions skills are on a level either by the percentage 63,03% and the average score 62,59% dimensions the level of education be on a level either by the percentage 72,22% the average score 3,61 dimensions physically be on a level either by the percentage 62,34% and the average score 3,12 and dimension experience of being on a level either by the percentage 76,22% and the average score 3,81.All are at intervals class good. Keywords: Analysis of Employee Placement

Aims: This study illustrates the main factors that influence the cost overruns and schedule delays of tunnel construction megaprojects. Objective: An empirical analysis was carried out based on a dataset collected from a number of recent tunnel megaprojects worldwide. Methods: Analyses of variances and regression analyses were conducted to infer statistical significance and understand the relationships that exist between cost overruns, time delays and variables of context, technical, and governance characteristics of the sample projects. Results: The most significant factors are those related to the complexity of infrastructure and the type of contracting system used to deliver the project. In particular, some technical characteristics pertinent to the size of the tunnel reveal to be influencing factors of both schedule delay and cost overrun, while the usage of a traditional contracting mechanism is likely to impact the cost overrun. The type of infrastructure, region, ownership, and funding scheme are not found to be statistically significant determinants of cost and time performance. Conclusion: This analysis reaffirms that the size and complexity are important factors of typical low performance of tunnel construction megaprojects. The results of this study can be used for strategic design and planning by decision-makers, project managers and designers.

Globalization has unleashed a new era of prosperity in economic terms. This has completely changed our outlook towards lifestyle. The recent surge of consumption in the past few decades has led to the escalation in the production of goods which in turn puts a huge burden on the environment. The increasing over consumption of resources has created a sense of urgency to track the level of expenditure as well emissions from a product. One of the major concerns related to the development of green products is the cost factor that comes into play while sourcing the alternate green materials. Identifying the alternate green material increases the overall manufacturing cost for the company. There are a lot of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) models that look into the environmental quality of a product. Similarly, there are many Supply Chain Management (SCM) models that look into the cost of the product. However very few have researched the combination of both LCA and SCM. There is a need to establish a balance between the cost and the environmental quality of a product. This paper investigates the cost of manufacturing sustainable products by looking into existing LCA and SCM models.

One of the most important problems for governments and private sectors on construction industry is how to allocate budgets for public residential projects. Low-income residential projects in developing countries have major effects on implementing the principles of sustainable development. Limited budgets in concrete rehabilitation structures represent challenges for the decision-makers. The budget allocation methods proposed in this paper can be easily meet the actual changing demands of response budget policies. This paper proposed a comprehensive comparison between the Topsis method and Simo's ranking method in low-income residential rehabilitation projects. Also, the assignment problem presented to select a suitable project depending on the different clusters. This proposed comparative study aims the decision-maker (DM) to select the optimum method. Finally 13 criteria have been gathered from comprehensive literature. The gathered criteria have been reviewed through unstructured interviews with engineers work in the required field, and selective research according to the designed sample size. These criteria have been classified into three main clusters, economic aspects cluster, social aspects cluster, and environmental aspects cluster. Statistical analysis has been conducted on the interviews feedback. The research aims to trade-off in guiding the decision-maker to direct very limited budgets in the quality of restoration and rehabilitation the efficiency of low-cost or economic housing projects sustainably based on cost factors of projects.

The low economy of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles is a big challenge to their wide usage. In this article, a road, health, and price-conscious optimal cost minimization strategy based on a decision-making framework was developed to decrease their overall cost. First, an online applicable cost minimization strategy was developed to minimize the overall operating costs of the vehicles, including the hydrogen cost and degradation costs of the fuel cell and battery. Second, a decision-making framework composed of the driving pattern recognition-enabled, prognostics-enabled, and price prediction-enabled decision makings, for the first time, was built to recognize the driving pattern, estimate the health states of power sources, and project future prices of hydrogen and power sources. Based on these estimations, optimal equivalent cost factors were updated to reach the optimal results on the overall cost and charge sustaining of a battery. The effects of driving cycles, degradation states, and pricing scenarios were analyzed.

External factors, such as the increasing environmental awareness among consumers and introduction of environmental regulations by governments, have stimulated manufacturers to produce new green products. Cost factors, on the other hand, encourage the continuation of older generation products and hinder the launch of new green products. To study this dilemma, we consider a single manufacturer with the ability of cost learning from the production of an older generation product, and it intends to launch a new green product. We first derive the optimal pricing and production strategies of the manufacturer based on accumulated cost learning using dynamic programming techniques. Then, we identify the threshold conditions for producing the new green product and the Pareto area that can increase both the profit of the manufacturer and surplus of consumers. For comparison purposes, we also study the impact of external regulations such as environmental taxes on the introduction of a new green product – with results suggesting that the implementation of environmental taxes promotes the accessibility of green products and reduces the Pareto area of profit and consumer surplus. We also find that, under the influence of cost learning, the introduction of new greener products and the implementation of environmental taxes serve to reduce the total environmental damage done by the manufacturer. Results of our models should provide instructive managerial insights for the introduction of new greener products.

Environmental damage and global warming has become an issue in the world. Developments in the construction project has a large influence in environmental change on the surface of the earth. Construction activities start from the constructing stage to the operating stage. Green construction is one part of the sustainable development that is required to participate in environmental sustainability. With this background, the author agreed to explain the criteria, stages of difficulty and obstacles in implementing Green Construction. Data collected by questionnaire method and data analysis using SPSS Statistics 26. The results of this study obtained the value of the Green Construction criteria that applied is waste project variables with an average value of 3,748 and the lowest is site project variables with average 3,198. The most dominant factor of difficulty in applying Green Construction is the water usage variable with an average value of 3,283 and the lowest difficulty in applying is the energy variable with an average of 2,817. The most challenging obstacle factor in implementing Green Construction is the cost factor with an average value of 4.00 and the lowest obstacle is the efficient design variable with an average of 2.96. Thus, from the results of this study is expected that the contractor can help more actively in improving the implementation of Green Construction in this construction project.

E-business benefit both large and small businesses. However, the aggregate cost of successful online trading, including initial and recurring costs, continues to pose a great challenge to micro-enterprises. For these willing businesses, the result is a mere web presence and for some, the thought of trading online is a no-go area. Using a multi-case study qualitative approach, this study adopts the technology-organisation-environment theoretical lens to explore empirically the strategies used by e-retail microbusinesses to potentially advance their e-business adoption. The findings revealed the actual cost of adoption, the technology-organisation-environment strategies in use to lower the cost barrier, and how the pursuit of the cost barrier simultaneously lowers some adoption barriers outside the cost factors. The study also highlighted the intrinsic idiosyncratic nature of small firms’ ecosystems, and the fact that government resources and services provided by companies, both private and public, could effectively reduce the costs associated with e-business adoption.

Green wireless networks or energy-efficient wireless networks have gained popularity as a research topic due to the ecological and economic concerns of cellular operators. The specific power supply requirements for the cellular base station, such as cost-effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, and reliability, can be met by utilizing the technological advances in renewable energy. There are numerous drivers for the deployment of renewable energy technologies and the transition towards green energy. Renewable energy is free, clean, and abundant in most locations throughout the year. Accordingly, this work proposes a novel framework for energy-efficient solar-powered base stations for the Oman site, specifically for off-grid locations where fuel transportation for diesel generator (DG) is a serious concern. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system for off-grid sites, the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables optimization software is adapted by considering real-time conditions and its technical feasibility. Different cost factors such as capital cost, salvage cost, replacement cost, operational, and maintenance cost of PV panels, inverters, and batteries also undergo extensive analysis. From the observed results, the total net present cost (NPC) of the proposed system is $27,887, while the net NPC of the DG is estimated at $32,900. Remarkably, the proposed scheme can potentially achieve considerable savings in the operational expenditure at approximately 15.24%. Indeed, these outcomes can provide profound economic, technical, and ecological benefits to the cellular operators of Oman. It also ensures a sizeable reduction in greenhouse gas that supports sustainable green wireless network deployment in remote areas.

Purpose- The purpose of the study is to propose a model to measure the success performance of businesses which have adopted Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) practices. Methodology- A literature review was carried out based on some concepts such as SSCM, sustainability and business performance, social performance and financial performance, and sustainable cost management. Findings- When the literature is examined, it is seen that SSCM is considered to be more of a business's practices for reducing environmental impact. In addition, In many studies which examine the relationship between SSCM and firm performance, cost savings are often used as financial performance indicators. But, the fact that sustainability-based practices will generate many different cost factors has been overlooked in many studies. On the other hand, It is seen that the number of studies on cost management and performance measurement in SSCM practices is quite limited. Conclusion- Considering the effects of sustainability-based practices in measuring business performance is important for the definition of long-term success indicators and accurate performance measurements.

The last decades have seen a tremendous amount of research being devoted to effectively managing vehicle fleets and minimizing empty mileage. However, in contrast to, e.g., the air transport sector, the question of how to best assign crews to vehicles, has received very little attention in the road transport sector. The vast majority of road freight transport in Europe is conducted by single drivers and team driving is often only conducted if there are special circumstances, e.g., security concerns. While it is clear that transport companies want to avoid the costs related to additional drivers, vehicles manned by a single driver sit unused whenever the driver takes a mandatory break or rest. Team drivers, on the other hand, can travel a much greater distance in the same amount of time, because mandatory breaks and rests are required less frequently. This paper investigates under which conditions trucking companies should use single or team driving to maximize their profitability. We present a novel optimization approach for simultaneously optimizing routes and crewing decisions and provide experimental evidence that, for a wide range of cost factors, operating a fleet with a mix of team and single drivers can significantly reduce operational costs when compared to typical profit margins in the sector.

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study was to explain the infrastructure and the need to establish a mobile payment in Iran in the form of a phenomenological study. Methodology: In this study, experts active in the first mobile organization in Tehran have been selected as the statistical population of the study. In this study, sampling was continued until the research structures reached the data saturation level. So that newer interviews did not add a new variable to the previous variables. This saturation is achieved in the fifteenth interview. However, to ensure the expressed saturation, four more interviews were conducted and the number of sample members reached 19 of these people. To improve the validity and reliability of the research, all interviews were recorded with the knowledge of the participants, and key points were reviewed to extract. After announcing the agreement, an interview was held with the focus on perception, perception, and desired indicators for an infrastructure model and the need to establish a mobile payment in Iran. Results: According to the findings, two models were presented to explain the need for mobile payment deployment in Iran with three main factors of deployment strategies, technical strategies, and management-marketing strategies, and a model to explain mobile payment deployment infrastructure in Iran with four main cost factors. Infrastructure, management infrastructure, hardware infrastructure, and software infrastructure were designed and developed. Applications of this study: Finally, it was suggested that by modeling the models presented in this study at the level of national strategies, it is possible to provide the grounds for the establishment of mobile payment in Iran. The novelty of the study: The novelty of this research is the establishment of mobile payment in Iran in the form of phenomenology.

In the recent years, the Egyptian agricultural policy has led to some structural changes that aimed to maximizing economic returns under the technical potential and economic determinants of the local and global economies. The total financial income achieved for the Egyptian cotton crop is estimated at about 9710.8 pounds per acre, as an average for the period of study (2000-2018). Such income was less than the economic value of those revenues at the border prices by about 5.7%, with the economic value of that revenue amounting to about 10261,6 pounds to the ears. The value of the nominal protective coefficient for cotton production was about 0.94 during the study period, which illustrates the absence of a fair production policy during that period due to the depreciation of this coefficient from the correct coefficient. It turns out that the nominal protection factor for production requirements is about 0.91 for this crop, which illustrates the apparent decrease in the amount of support provided by the state for the production requirements as the value of this coefficient approached the correct one. It turns out that the value of the effective protection coefficient is less than the correct one, which amounted to about 0.94 which shows that the value added of the cotton crop is reduced in domestic prices from world prices. The value of the local resource cost factor was about 0.41 during the period 2000-2018.

A new alternative of electricity bill payment exists in Indonesia at present, namely prepaid systems. The system is intended to facilitate customers in electricity saving where the electricity utilization could be adjusted. In reality, however, post-paid electricity system utilization still receives great demand. As a consequence, it could not suppress electricity consumption. This research aims to learn factors inhibiting consumers to switch to prepaid electricity systems for their electricity consumption. A descriptive research carries out to answer the research problems. Sample consists of 100 people determined via a snowball sampling technique. Data collection is conducted using questionnaires and measured using Likert Scale of 1-5. Factory analysis is used as an analysis tool. The research results indicate that the main factor that becomes a barrier for electricity customers to switch to prepaid systems is habitual using factor. Switching cost factor, lack of prepaid system information, and relationship and reputation of post-paid products are the second, third, and fourth factors, respectively.Keywords: Switching barrier, electricity, prepaid, and household sectorJEL Classifications: C42, D10, M00, O30DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/ijeep.10237

This study identifies consumers’ perceived benefits and costs when using Samsung Health (a healthcare app) based on consumer reviews from Google Play Store’s app and social media discourse. We examine the differences in the benefits and the costs of Samsung Health using these two sources of data. We conducted text frequency analysis, clustering analysis, and semantic network analysis using R programming. The major findings are as follows. First, consumers experience benefits and costs on several functions of the app, such as step counting, device interlocking, information acquisition, and competition with global consumers. Second, the results of semantic network analysis showed that there were eight benefit factors and three cost factors. We also found that the three costs correspond to the benefits, indicating that some consumers gained benefits from certain functions while others gained costs from the same functions. Third, the comparison between consumer app review and social media discourse showed that the former is appropriate to assess the performance of app functions, while the latter is appropriate to examine how the app is used in daily life and how consumers feel about it. The current study suggests managerial implications to healthcare app service providers regarding what they should strengthen and improve to enhance consumers’ satisfaction. It also suggests some implications from the two media, which can be mutually complementary, for researchers who study consumer opinions.

In this era, some people use E-commerce for online transportation. Go-Jek is one of the alternatif online transportation that used by people. The aim of the research is to know the effect of factor cost, quality of services, and E-Commerce technologi to decision for using Go-Jek service in Kecamatan Cibinong. The type of research is used correlational research. The data analysis is used linear regression of multiple with helping SPSS program version 17.0. Result of the research shows the test linear regression of multiple obtained the regression equation is: Y = 3.340+ 0,631X1+ 0,180X2+ 0,678X3. The meaning is every it increases the values of free variable (cost, quality of services, and E-Commerce) so it will increase the value of customers decision using Go-Jek in Kecamatan Cibinong. The results of the coefficient of determination show that the value Adjust R Square of 0,446 (44,6%) Which means together factors cost , the quality of services and E-Commerce have contribution or affecting decision to use Go-Jek in Kecamatan Cibinong of 44,6 %, while the rest 55,4% affect by the other factors that is not discussed in the research. The results of the hypothesis whether partial and simultaneously Prove that factors price , the quality of services and e-commerce affect decision costumers using Go-Jek in Kecamatan Cibinong. The most dominant factors affecting decision to using go-jek in Kecamatan Cibinong is a factor information technology E-Commerce , this is proven by value the regression coefficient of 0,678

Proton therapy is delivered to selected cancer patients presenting with rare tumours, for which a dose escalation paradigm and/or a reduced dose-bath to the organs at risk is pursued. It is a costly treatment with an additional cost factor of 2–3 when compared to photon radiotherapy. Notwithstanding the 180′000 patients treated with protons, scars robust clinical evidence is available to justify the administration of this treatment modality. The European Particle Therapy Network (EPTN) was created in 2015 to answer the critical European needs for cooperation among protons and carbon ions centres in the framework of clinical research networks. EPTN with other European groups will launch a number of prospective clinical trials that could be practice changing if positive. Alternative way to generate clinical data could be provided by alternative methodologies, such as the Dutch model-based approach, or could be provided by European infrastructure projects.

Subject. The subject of the study is the influence of price and nonprice factors on consumers’ behavior at the educational services market.The aim of the study is to investigate the price, non-price reduced to price, non-price not reduced to price factors of the applicants’ choice of University examined during the experiment conducted in the State University “Dubna”. The objectives of the present study are the following: to analyze the experimental data, to establish the impact of three sets of factors on the applicants’ choice of University.Methods. Such methods as questioning method, index method, financial and factor analysis methods were used during the study.Results and discussion. Factors that have a significant influence on the choice of the applicants were identified: a state-recognized degree – 77,6%, teachers’ qualifications – 57,1%, financial capacity of parents – 45,2%, high remuneration after graduation – 47,6%, and all factors related to the high income in the future: acquisition of professional skills – 63,9%, advancement opportunity – 52,4%, facilities and resources of university – 40,8%. It was found that the following factors have a low level of impact: the amount of a tuition fee – 25,9%, dormitory availability – 26,5%, availability of performance contracts32,7%, the presence of several forms of education – 27,9%, fl exible system of payment, discounts – 27,9%, the presence of competitions – 26%, family continuity – 41,8%. Compounding and calculating of the net present value (NPV) were conducted to estimate price and non-price to price reduced factors. 77% has NPV value greater than zero, 23% has it less than or equal to zero.Conclusions. Two thirds of respondents consider making of choice as a rational act, other respondents’ choice was affected by price reduced to cost factors. A factor analysis was held in order to estimate the price reduced to cost factors and revealed two factors that influence the choice: expanding of social circle, social, creative and sports life in the university.Key words: price, non-price to price reduced, price reduced to cost factors, demand, applicant, net present value, factor analysis.

This paper offers a conceptual analysis of the unaccounted-for cost of owning and operating used machines from an operational, financial and market perspective. It is based on input from experts and a literature review. In the scientific literature, assessing the operating cost of used machines in forest operations is typically based on standard cost assessment methods using costing/pricing input from similar unused machines. This is the case since there are usually no historical data for observed used machines available to analyze. This substitute analysis is problematic to many used and depreciated machines owners. The changing trends in forest technology attest that old machinery do not hold to the same input cost data variables or values of new machines. In fact, they belong to two rather competing different markets: (used vs. new equipment markets). With the technological, market and machinery regulations and dynamic changes, the substitute cost analysis is not representative. Better data is required to understand the cost of owning and operating used machines and the justification is the focal point of this paper. The outcome of the expert and literature analysis in this paper demonstrates that a broader understanding of the cost of a used machine is required and doable. A proposed understanding integrates the machine availability (performance), cost factors (financial) and market evaluation (price), in isolation (single piece of machine) as well as in a fleet, to assess a used machine ownership cost. The study is intended to offer forest machine operators, owners, scientists, and practitioners a proposed new approach to value used machines and further investigations and data inputs required to make used machines costing methods more relevant.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a disruptive technology that complements the usage of modern day information and communications technology (ICT) systems. IoT systems, with their small form and cost factor coupled with their increasing reliability, have made huge inroads in all markets. Connected to some form of interconnected networks, either to the mainstream Internet or private networks, they enable ubiquitous and to a large extent autonomous operation. This has taken away the idea that sensing, actuation, and computing needs to be dependent on expensive and complicated legacy systems. Although complete discontinuation of legacy systems is still quite a long journey and would not be completely possible, IoT systems show the waypoints as to how the ICT industry will evolve. The military domain is not far away from adopting IoT technologies in its operational construct. The NATO IST-147 and 176 research task groups have closely examined applicability of IoT for federated and ubiquitous military applications. Introducing IoT devices in the military domain requires verification and validation (V&V) of ICT systems as per operational guidelines. This article proposes and applies a concept for security, privacy, and eependability evaluation of IoT systems that could be used for V&V processes. This would enable more streamlined and standardized evaluations of IoT systems before they can be deemed usable for military contexts.

The volatile nature of the renewable energy sources requires energy storage to compensate for the imbalances and to provide reliable base load. Power-to-Methane technology facilitates long-term high capacity renewable energy storage in the form of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) in the gas network. Unlike hydrogen, SNG usage in the network has no restrictions and natural gas appliances can operate on SNG. The two inputs required to produce SNG in the methanator are hydrogen and CO2 and they can be obtained from several sources. This leads to multiple possible process flow configurations in SNG production, each of them with varying performance. An optimization model has been developed in GAMS to analyse the performance of these various configurations. The objective of this research is to determine the optimal configuration, key cost factors and their effects on the production cost to identify the areas that require further development for cost reduction. This work also aims to determine the production cost per unit of SNG and the factors with most significant influence on the production cost by implementing a factorial design and a multivariate analysis (analysis of variance) approach. Methanator, electrolyser, biogas upgrader and hydrogen storage are considered as the fundamental process units in this work. The lowest production cost identified in the first year of production is 0.432 €/kWhSNG. The discounted production cost obtained shows that the lowest cost in 20 years from now is 0.143 €/kWhSNG. The variable with the most influence on the production cost is the capex of the methanator followed by the capacity of the methanator.

Biofuel has an important role in alleviating the environmental pollution problem. More attention has been paid to optimization of biofuel supply chain in recent years. In this paper, a scientific, rational and practical biodiesel processing plant location with waste oil as the raw material was proposed in order to provide a theoretical basis for guiding the planning and management of restaurants, waste oil collection points, and processing plants. Considering the merits and demerits of the subjective and objective weighting methods, this paper proposes a new weighting method which is namely the combination of rough set theory and clustering algorithm. It then verifies the location results with a plant carbon emission. At last, this paper analyzes the location of biodiesel processing plant in the Yangtze River Delta of China and finds that the precision has been greatly improved with the new method comparing the RMSE and the R2 of the Delphi method with the improved rough set theory. By using this method, the weights of the influencing factors of biodiesel processing plants are the following: Waste oil supply 0.143, Fixed construction cost factor 0.343, Biodiesel demand 0.143 and Location convenience 0.371. In the comparison between the robust optimization method and the improved rough set theory, it was found that the final location results are the same, all being Jiaxing City. However, the improved rough set theory is much simpler than the robust optimization algorithm in the calculation process.

Hypertension is a highly prevalent cardiovascular disease. It marks a considerable cost factor to many national health systems. Despite its prevalence, regional disease distributions are often unknown and must be estimated from survey data. However, health surveys frequently lack in regional observations due to limited resources. Obtained prevalence estimates suffer from unacceptably large sampling variances and are not reliable. Small area estimation solves this problem by linking auxiliary data from multiple regions in suitable regression models. Typically, either unit- or area-level observations are considered for this purpose. But with respect to hypertension, both levels should be used. Hypertension has characteristic comorbidities and is strongly related to lifestyle features, which are unit-level information. It is also correlated with socioeconomic indicators that are usually measured on the area-level. But the level combination is challenging as it requires multi-level model parameter estimation from small samples. We use a multi-level small area model with level-specific penalization to overcome this issue. Model parameter estimation is performed via stochastic coordinate gradient descent. A jackknife estimator of the mean squared error is presented. The methodology is applied to combine health survey data and administrative records to estimate regional hypertension prevalence in Germany.

Project management has become the best way to plan for the future, and its importance in finding appropriate solutions is undoubted. Because of the cost factor of operations, barely any of the projects involve economic decision-making. The complexity in making economic decisions causes some of the projects to make the wrong decisions due to lack of proper information. Financial decision-making involves more than just collecting information and making decisions based on the information. For the formed economic decisions to be viable, a deep analysis of the economy must be done to estimate the future economy. This study focuses on the future trend and the relevance of economic decision-making in project management. It is based on testing the influence of economic decision-making, innovativeness, risk profile, and the size of the management team on the success of a project. The primary theme is to evaluate the level of significance of economic decision-making in project management.

Nowadays, due to the advent of clouding computing, buffer size can be readily extended in a couple of minutes for computing servers, where the buffer size should not be considered as given when optimizing the system performance. In this context, we explore optimal combinations for the buffer size and the length of vacation time in M/G/1/K queues with multiple vacations numerically. We consider the cases of deterministic and exponentially distributed vacation and service times. In order to do this, we also formulate an optimal problem and define cost factors: the customer loss cost, the buffer holding cost, and the server operating cost. We present some numerical examples to investigate the impact of the system parameters such as the buffer size, the length of the vacation time, and the distribution of the service time, to performance measures and the total cost. We also investigate optimal combinations for the buffer size and the vacation length for various values of the cost factors.

In this study, it is aimed to guide in foreign investors' decisions on portfolio investment decisions by using multi-purpose decision making techniques. To this end, G7 countries were identified as investors. As countries to be invested, selected countries in the Balkans were included in the analysis. Criteria used during the analysis are economic and locally defined as two main factors and their sub-factors. AHP method was used as multi-purpose decision making techniques to determine the weight of the criteria and MOORA was used to determine the Balkan country to be invested. As a result, findings show that for making investment decision to a country, country’s GNP amounts, commercial climate and investment freedom about the country are the most effective factors but geographic distance and information cost factors are the least effective factors. Bu çalışmada, yabancı yatırımcıların portföy yatırım kararlarında çok amaçlı karar verme tekniklerini kullanarak yatırımcılara yol gösterilmesi amaçlanıştır. Bunu gerçekleştirmek için G7 ülkeleri yatırımcılar olarak belirlenmiştir. Çalışmada yatırım yapılacak ülke olarak Balkan ülkeleri seçilmiştir. Analizde kullanılan kriterler, ekonomik ve yerel olmak üzere iki ana faktör ve bunların alt faktörleri şeklinde belirlenmiştir. AHP yöntemi, çok amaçlı karar verme tekniklerinde kriterlerin ağırlıklarının belirlenmesinde, MOORA yatırım yapılacak Balkan ülkesinin belirlenmesinde kullanılmıştır. Analiz sonuçlarına göre bir ülkeye yatırım kararı verirken en etkin faktörler o ülkenin gayrisafi milli hasılası, ticari iklimi ve yatırım serbestliği olarak belirlenirken coğrafi mesafe ve iletişim maliyetleri en az etkili faktörler olarak belirlenmiştir.

Introduction. The requirements of modern management provide for the differentiation of approaches to enterprise management in terms of tactical and strategic vectors. The system of management accounting as a result of the evolutionary allocation of the functional direction – strategic management accounting, requires clarification of the basic theoretical and methodological principles, in particular in relation to their functions. Methods. The study was conducted using the epistemological method (clarification of definitions); system and structural method (determining the relationship of accounting functions); functional approach (identification of specific functions of strategic management accounting); analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, abstraction and generalization (development of aspects of multifunctionality of accounting in the system of tactical and strategic management). Results. Given the duality of positioning strategic management accounting, there are two specific functions: 1) information support and support of the process of monitoring the environment, development, implementation and adjustment of enterprise strategies to improve business efficiency and provide feedback in the strategic management system; 2) information support of the process of cost-oriented management through the use of specialized methodological tools (techniques, models and methods), which allows to maintain existing sustainable cost advantages, as well as providing external users with information on cost generation and destruction factors, cost factors and cost modification factors chains. Discussion. Theoretical substantiation of the functions of strategic management accounting as a system of information support for strategic management decisions forms the prerequisites for clarifying its purpose and generating a range of methodological tools to meet its objectives in the system of strategic management.

The critical challenges for IoT-based intelligent applications for the adaptive environment are effective resource allocation, secure data transmission, and mobility management. It is highly significant that these mandatory requirements be considered in the overall IoT-enabled smart networks. In this research, we initially propose the resource allocation model for IoT-based systems by adopting the security, energy drain, and cost factors. Furthermore, MMSA, incorporating security with mobility, is developed. The experimental analysis demonstrates that the proposed MMSA outperforms conventional techniques in terms of mobility management, delay, security, and criticality factors with optimal resource allocation. The findings of this research demonstrate that the security level, energy optimization, and reliability for the proposed MMSA, traditional, and baseline methods are (15 percent, 13 percent, 11 percent), (20mJ, 14mJ, and 9.5mJ), and (9.78 percent, 6.8 percent, and 5.6 percent), respectively. Consequently, it can be concluded that the proposed approach can be widely used for intelligent IoT systems because it delivers better reliability and mobility-enabled security than its counterparts.

This paper presents a detailed comparative review of cost models and cost factors published in a number of studies on freight transportation. It attempts to determine and categorise cost factors fr...

Development of public transportation is meant to bridge the divide between cities and encourage development results. The inter-city transportation opens up opportunities for the inter-city trade, reduces costs and increases labor mobility, thereby promoting the inter-city development opportunities. This study uses the factor and cluster analyses. Analysis of factors is performed to determine the most dominant factors. The cluster analysis is used to identify the advantages and disdvantages of five modes of transport, namely taxi, trade rail, economy bus, mini bus, and executive bus. This study aims to determine the perception of users of Medan-Pematang Siantar route service. The results of this study show that there are five dominant factors that are considered before the service users decide on the mode of transport to use, namely the comfort factor, which is the most important consideration, followed by the time factor, cost factor, accessibility factor and safety factor.

In China, systemic techno-economic analysis for solar tracker has been absent. To fill the blank, by taking the economic analysis of solar tracker application as the research object and using the LCOE method widely used internationally, the techno-economic analysis model of solar tracker was established according to conditions in China. Influence factors on LCOE were analyzed by using the established model, and the relationship between each cost factor and the cost component of energy leveling of tracker was further studied. In addition, the calculation method of investment payback period based on energy leveling analysis was established, and the influence of various factors on investment payback period was revealed through an example calculation. The research results will help to measure the economy of tracker application more accurately and comprehensively, and promote the popularization and application of solar tracker. The economic analysis model of solar tracker application was established by using LCOE method. The influence factors and cost component of LCOE were analyzed with the model. The payback period of solar tracker investment was also analyzed based on LCOE method.

In the standard Hecksher-Ohlin (HO) model, the specialization of countries is exogenous and static. This work elaborates the hypothesis that the specialization of countries is the endogenous outcome of the creative response of firms caught in out-of-equilibrium conditions by the changing conditions of factor and product markets. It presents three models. In the basic Schumpeter-Hecksher-Ohlin (SHO) model, countries try and react by means of the introduction of technological change to increase their productivity levels and to contrast the wage reducing effects of the factor cost equalization. The extended SHO models show how i) countries can react with the selective introduction in their specialized sector of activity of new technologies localized by the pervasive role of learning and ii) identify technological knowledge as the locally most abundant and idiosyncratic input so as to direct the introduction of knowledge intensive technological change.

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables cost-effective and efficient production toward sustainability. However, a rigorous evaluation method is required to further investigate the measurement method and efficiency before AM can be well-positioned in sustainable manufacturing and become the industry mainstream. Cost savings play a key role in the manufacturing industry. Compared to conventional manufacturing (CM), the cost of AM is volume-independent. In contrast, CM production requires a certain volume to share the initial tooling costs to achieve cost reduction. This constraint limits CM from service on demand and leaves ambiguity in the threshold setting of that critical batch volume. In addition, the invisibility of AM advantages in cost factors blocks AM technologies from appropriate processes and affects its applications. To address these issues, this paper proposes a business model. The major issues encountered by AM are the scaling, speed, and size of products. The enhancement of cost modeling and addressing speed, scale, and size issues are the novelties of this study and provide a breakthrough in AM issues. Generic equations are derived using the convergence effect and cost–volume intersection calculation between AM and CM. Furthermore, the divide-and-conquer approach is proposed to support scaling factors and dependencies for both AM and CM. Consequently, appropriate AM technologies can be compared with the CM convergence threshold to contribute to decision-making. Next, the advantages and weaknesses of AM are identified, and a collaboration pattern is proposed to connect large enterprises, small-and medium-sized enterprises, and home-based manufacturers into an AM society. Through this society, the advantages of AM can be fully exploited, scaling and speed issues can be addressed, and AM's dominant role in sustainable manufacturing can be made feasible.

This study was conducted for the purpose of maintaining the sustainable loyalty of customers towards modern retail channel in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The data used in the study were collected from 215 customers who went shopping at convenience stores, mini-marts and others made purchase by means of online shopping via the supermarkets’ websites during the Covid-19 pandemic in Vietnam. The result shows that there are five (5) factors positively affecting customers’ loyalty including perceived value, trust, service quality, personality traits, and commitment, among which perceived value has the strongest impact on customer loyalty. In addition, the study also shows that the switching cost factor moderates the relationship between customer trust and loyalty. Based on the result, the study proposes a number of managerial implications for the managers of modern retail channel from which to have suitable business methods and marketing strategies to meet the requirements of different types of customers, thereby increasing customer loyalty, gaining competitive advantage, and bringing sustainable business performance to businesses during the new normal and post-pandemic period. © 2021, SRAC - Romanian Society for Quality. All rights reserved.

Truck platooning involves a small convoy of freight vehicles using electronic coupling as an application in automated driving technology, and it is expected to represent a major solution for improving efficiency in truck transportation in the near future. Recently, there have been several trials regarding truck platooning with major truck manufacturers and logistics companies on public roads in the United States, European countries and Japan. There is a need to locate a facility for the formation of truck platooning to realize the unmanned operation of trucks following in a platoon. In this study, we introduce the current status of truck platooning in Japan and present the optimal location model for truck platooning using the continuous approximation model with a numerical experiment, considering the case in Japan. We derived the optimal locational strategy for the combination of the long-haul ratio and the cost factor of platooning. With parameters estimated for several scenarios for the deployment of truck platooning in Japan, the numerical results show that the optimal locational strategy for a platoon of manned vehicles and a platoon with unmanned following vehicles is the edge of the local region, and that for a platoon of fully automated vehicles is the center of the region.