1,720,956 research outputs found
Impact of financing and payout policy on the economic profitability of solar photovoltaic plants
No full textThis paper introduces an innovative comprehensive evaluation model for appraising an investment in a solar photovoltaic plant which encompasses both operational and financial management. We illustrate the intricate network of logical relations among technical (estimated) variables and financial (decision) variables and show that establishing transparent links between the former and the latter enhances the accuracy and soundness of the model. The results indicate that understanding the conceptual and formal relations of operating variables and financial decisions is necessary for correctly measuring shareholder value creation and making rational decisions, even for those projects (such as solar energy projects) where the operating, technical component is of paramount importance. We show how a firm's decision of replacing conventional energy with solar energy may be affected by managerial decisions regarding the firm's payout/retention policy and its financing policy to support the project. The model discloses insights on how to fine-tune the financing and distribution decisions in order to maximize the value creation for shareholders. We apply the model to a real-life photovoltaic project to be located in the province of Modena, in Northeast Italy, and quantify the effect of financial decisions on the project's net present value, showing that the financing and distribution policies may amplify or shrink the impact of changes in other inputs and may even revert an otherwise unprofitable project into a value-creating one. Finally, we allow operational variables as well as financial variables to change in order to measure their importance via the application of the Clean Finite Change Sensitivity Indices (Magni et al., 2020)
The Attribution Matrix and the joint use of Finite Change Sensitivity Index and Residual Income for value-based performance measurement
No full textComprehensive financial modeling of solar PV systems
Full text linkThe adoption of a photovoltaic system has positive environmental effects, but the main driver of the choice in the industrial and commercial sector is economic profitability. Switching from acquisition of energy to production of energy is an investment with costs (e.g. leasing annual payment, O&M costs, capital expenditure) and benefits (e.g. savings in the electric bill, sale of the energy exceeding consumptions). In this work, we use an accounting-and-finance model to calculate the Equity Net Present Value in different scenarios and a sensitivity-analysis method (Finite Change Sensitivity Index) to explain the reasons for differences in results. This technique enables identifying the contribution of any input factor in the output value variation. In this way, the investor can draw attention on the most significant critical variables in the initial estimations to ensure success in forecasting
Investment and financing perspectives for a solar photovoltaic project
Full text linkIn this work we illustrate a simple logical framework serving the purpose of measuring value creation in a real-life solar photovoltaic project, funded with a lease contract, a loan contract and internal financing (i.e., withdrawal from liquid assets). We use the projected accounting data to compute the value created. We assess the project from both an investment perspective (operating assets and liquid assets) and a financing perspective (debt and equity). Furthermore, focusing on value creation for equityholders, we calculate the expected contribution on shareholders’ wealth increase of operating and financing activity. In particular, we highlight the role of the distribution policy in financial modeling by describing the strict logical connections between estimated data and financial decisions
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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