1,720,984 research outputs found
Impact of outsourcing and economic development on productivity and technical efficiency of airlines / Muhammad Asraf Abdullah
Get PDFThe principal objectives of this study are twofold. Firstly, it attempts to evaluate the technical efficiency and productivity growth of 56 global airlines that operate in two types of business models namely full cost and low cost carriers. Secondly, this study aims to investigate the influence of outsourcing extent and economic development on the performance of airlines from the perspectives of technical efficiency and productivity growth. The study assesses the technical efficiency of full cost and low cost carriers by applying the concept of metafrontier technical efficiency which is introduced by O’ Donnell et al. (2008). Next, the evaluation of productivity change employs the metafrontier concept of Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) as suggested by Oh and Lee (2010). Finally, the influence of outsourcing and economic development on the technical efficiency and productivity growth are estimated using the One Step System, Generalized Method of Moments estimator (GMM). The findings from the technical efficiency analysis indicate that full cost carrier is narrowing the technical efficiency gap between the group frontier and the metafrontier technologies as depicted by the high scores of the technology gap ratio throughout the period of study from 2002 to 2011. This implies that full cost carrier is moving closer towards the world technology frontier. As such, this suggests that the full cost carrier forms the world technology frontier. On the other hand, the findings from the productivity analysis demonstrate that the low cost carriers gained the highest change in productivity growth of 3.7 percent throughout the period examined from 2002/2003 to 2010/2011, whilst full cost carriers recorded a marginal fall of 0.5 percent in the productivity growth. The main contributing factors to the decent productivity growth of low cost carriers are due to two reasons. Firstly, the capability of low cost carriers to efficiently squeeze its available inputs in order to maximize the production of output. In essence, the result implies that low cost carriers are good at catching up. Secondly, the positive change in technology gap ratio suggests that low cost carriers has the capacity to speed up the technological development as shown by a moderate growth rate of 0.7 percent annually in the technology gap ratio. The findings from the GMM estimators revealed an indirect yet positive relationship between outsourcing and performance indicators which are technical efficiency and productivity growth. The results from the analysis exhibit positive influences of outsourcing on technical efficiency and productivity growth in the context of small-scale airlines. In essence, these findings suggest a significant role of outsourcing in influencing the technical efficiency and productivity growth in small-scale airlines. Similarly, economic development level shows a positive association with the productivity growth of airlines but negative for technical efficiency. These findings further indicate that economic development improves the productivity of airlines only in the presence of high quality of governance
Efficiency of global airlines: an application of the metafrontier DEA model
No full textThis paper evaluates the technical efficiency of low cost and full cost carriers over the period 2002 to 2011 amid the high level of competition faced by airlines in Asia and Europe since the 2000s using the metafrontier technique based on Data Envelopment Analysis methodology. The application of this technique to airlines is interesting in order to identify the technology gap between low cost and full cost carriers. The study findings suggest that full cost carriers are technically more efficient than their low cost counterparts. The high value of TGR between the full cost carrier group and the metafrontier technical efficiencies indicates that full cost carriers have achieved the highest potential output
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
A pricing model for agricultural insurance based on big data and machine learning
Get PDFAgricultural insurance is a crucial element of policies that promote and protect agriculture. It protects agriculture
from risk and distributes agricultural hazards. The rural economy’s stabilization has been a significant stabilizer function. But as agriculture insurance has quickly advanced, a number of issues have unavoidably come to light. Agricultural insurance still offers a wide range of products and services available today. Big data will play a significant supporting role in the pressing need to innovate and improve goods and services. Other information supporting agricultural insurance includes agricultural data connected to it. The two previously most often utilized agricultural index insurances are regional yield insurance and weather index insurance. They struggle with risk pricing mostly due to a lack of appropriate empirical data, complicated dependence linkages between various hazards, and the prevalence of basis risk. A comprehensive study
and review of pertinent research findings are carried out by modelling regional yield risk, building weather indicators and their distribution fitting, modelling agricultural dependence risk, and measuring and reducing basis risk. This article highlights the flaws in the current pricing models as well as the problems that need to be addressed in future studies. The need to further develop agricultural index insurance’s risk modelling techniques and increase the objectivity and precision of the pricing outcomes cannot be overstated in terms of their practical importance
Impact of Industrial Agglomeration on the Upgrading of China’s Automobile Industry : The Threshold Effect of Human Capital and Moderating Effect of Government
Get PDFThis study investigates the impact of industrial agglomeration on the upgrading of China’s automobile industry (UCAI) using panel data from 28 Chinese provinces spanning 2000 to 2020. The automobile industry is vital to China’s manufacturing and service sectors, with its upgrading capable of driving national economic growth and contributing to sustainable development goals. We employ the Malmquist productivity index based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, implemented through DEAP 2.1 software, to assess the UCAI. System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) analysis, conducted using Stata 17 software, was used to examine the impact of industrial agglomeration on this process, while also exploring the threshold effect of human capital and the moderating effect of government. The results indicate that industrial agglomeration significantly enhances the upgrading of the automobile industry; however, human capital acts as a critical
threshold. Below this threshold, agglomeration does not have a significant impact on the upgrading of the automobile industry, while exceeding it allows for significant positive
effects. Additionally, government has a moderating effect in facilitating this process by implementing policies that support innovation and sustainable practices. Based on these
findings, this paper presents several policy implications aimed at further promoting the UCAI and advancing sustainable development in the sector
DRIVERS AND BARRIERS : A STUDY ON CROSS-BORDER E�COMMERCE TRADE POTENTIAL IN THE RCEP REGION
Get PDFThis study aims to evaluate the development levels and trade potential of cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) between China and its Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) partners. Utilizing the cross�border e-commerce ecosystem theory and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the research integrates logistics performance, information flow, and digital infrastructure as core explanatory variables within an extended gravity model framework. The study analyzes trade volume data from 2013 to 2022, employing the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) for model estimation. Key findings indicate that supporting factors, especially logistics performance and information flow, are pivotal in enhancing CBEC development. China maintains a leading
position due to its advanced logistics and network infrastructure, whereas countries like Laos lag due to
infrastructural and economic disparities. The analysis further reveals that while China's CBEC development level
has a limited impact on increasing total trade volumes, the development levels of partner countries significantly
enhance their trade volumes with China. Additionally, per capita GDP of partner countries does not significantly
influence total trade volumes, though China's per capita GDP positively affects them. Distance costs negatively
impact trade volumes at a 10% significance level. Untapped trade potential exists between China and several
RCEP partners, including South Korea and Japan, highlighting the need for targeted trade promotion strategies.
These findings underscore the critical importance of improving logistics, infrastructure, and digital economy
frameworks to maximize CBEC trade potential. Policymakers should focus on reducing trade barriers, enhancing
digital infrastructure, and fostering economic cooperation to fully leverage the trade potential within the RCEP
framework
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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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