Risk management is one of the critical issues in supply chain management. Supply chain disruptions negatively impact on the performance and the business continuity of a firm, and the disruptions should be managed proactively if possible. One of the approaches for supply disruption management is to raise the level of inventory: supply disruptions can be reduced by simply increasing the safety stock level. However, inventory costs will be increased at the same time. Therefore it is assumed that having extra safety stock when and where needed is better than keeping a high safety stock all of the time. In this thesis, the concept of dynamic inventory management by supplier behavior monitoring is suggested and explored. Key to the concept is the assumption that out-of-control situations at a supplier can be causal triggers for stockouts, and that these triggers can be potentially predicted by using statistical monitoring tools. In the suggested approach, the statistical process control approach of using run tests is employed to monitor and evaluate the supplier behavior. The supplier’s yield rate is monitored as the performance measure, and the receiver’s safety stock level is increased when the supplier’s performance is detected to be potentially out-of-control (or about to reach an out-of-control situation). The simulation results under different yield rates indicate that stockouts can be reduced by monitoring the supplier behavior and dynamically adjusting inventory policy when production capacity is relatively loose and enough variability can be seen in the performance measure.

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1976. / Bibliography: leaves [101]-106. / Microfiche. / vii, 106 leaves

The search for alternative energy sources has increased interests in forest biomass. During the last few years, the sever infestation of the Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) within the Interior BC forests has led to huge volumes of dead wood that exceed the capacity of the lumber industry. One way to make the most value of the surplus wood is to use it as the feedstock for bioenergy. The forest biomass can be supplied through conventional (roadside residuals), full-tree chipping, or satellite yard systems. This thesis presents the development of a simulation model of supply logistics of forest biomass and its application to a case of supplying MPB-killed biomass from Quesnel Timber Supply Area (one of the most infested areas in the Interior BC) to a potential 300 MW power plant adjacent to the city of Quesnel. The model has the ability of providing estimates of quantity, delivery cost, and moisture content of biomass which are critical in feasibility study of any bioenergy project. The results obtained from simulation model showed a delivery cost of C$45 per oven dry tonne of wood chips to the power plant. The results also revealed that the feedstock recovered from roadside residues in one year meets about 30% of the annual demand of the power plant. Potential increase in the Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) for Quesnel TSA increases the quantity of biomass supplied from roadside residuals. However, as long as the biomass is supplied only through conventional harvesting, increasing the AAC even by 40% does not provide enough feedstock to meet the annual demand of the plant. Using the simulation modeling, this research has the benefit of considering the logistics of forest biomass supply as an integrated and interacting system as well as providing different critical parameters over time. The model also has the potential of considering dynamic and random behavior of the logistics system of supplying forest biomass. The model can be modified and applied to similar cases of conventional forest biomass supply. It also can be extended to other harvesting systems including satellite yard and whole-tree chipping.

Previous research has documented a negative relation between inflation and stock returns in the U.S. and selected developed countries during the post-war era. Their findings are inconsistent with the classical theory that real returns to the ownership of capital goods, such as stocks, are invariant to the general price level. / There seems to be a foregone conclusion that in the short-run when counter-cyclical measures are applied by developed countries to contain inflation, stock returns are negatively related to inflation. It will be interesting to know whether the above observation can also be found in emerging markets such as Hong Kong. / This paper finds that stock returns and inflation in Hong Kong are generally positively related, but the relation is statistically insignificant. It also finds that there is a reverse causal relation through which stock returns influence inflation in Hong Kong. This wealth effect is evident in all three periods tested, and is statistically significant in two of the three tested periods. / This paper finds that money supply (“M2”) can be a good indicator of stock market performance. We find that M2 is positively related to stock returns in Hong Kong in all three periods tested with very significant t-statistics. Investors can use this information to enhance their prediction of the overall stock market performance and thus improve their investment return. / U.S. investors can invest in Hong Kong stocks to enhance their real return. This paper finds that there is a positive relation between U.S. inflation and Hong Kong stock market return which may qualify Hong Kong stocks as a hedge against inflation for U.S. investors. As an emerging market, Hong Kong's inflation has been higher than that in the U.S. Stock market returns are also higher than those in the U.S. in nominal terms and in real terms against U.S. inflation. Also, the currency board system implemented in Hong Kong has virtually eliminated currency risk for U.S. investors during the past 20 years, although there is no guarantee that such a system will remain forever. However, we find that the portfolio performance of Hong Kong stocks and U.S. stocks, adjusted for the volatility factor, have been very similar during the last two decades. We therefore are not able to conclude that investing in Hong Kong stocks is superior to investing in U.S. stocks. U.S. investors should consider their portfolio mix and risk tolerance level carefully before investing in Hong Kong stocks. / Although the positive relation between inflation and stock market return found in this paper is not statistically significant, we did find a strong negative relation between deflation and stock returns during the deflationary period in Hong Kong. This result is statistically significant and is in general consistent with our finding of the positive relation between inflation and stock returns, but much stronger statistically. As recent developments indicate that the likelihood of the world economy experiencing disinflation or deflation is increasing, more studies should be done regarding the relation between deflation and other economic variables, such as stock returns. / Thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2004.

This thesis studies the influence of horizontal competition on supply chain performance. Unlike most of the existing literature which focuses on horizontal competition between echelon levels, we look at both the supply chain and the individual company??s performance with the presence of supply chain to supply chain competition. Specifically, this thesis is composed of three individual research papers. The first paper deals with chain-to-chain horizontal competition and considers price competition among an arbitrary number of supply chains by comparing two cases. In the first case each supply chain is vertically integrated, while in the second, decentralised, case the manufacturers and retailers act independently. We explore the effect of varying the level of price competition on the profitts of the industry participants and demonstrate the important role played by the spread of underlying market shares. The coefficient of variation of these market shares determines whether decentralised supply chains can outperform integrated supply chains with an appropriate level of competition. The second and third papers focus on in-chain horizontal competition with capacity constraints. In the second paper, we look at a supply chain with one manufacturer and two downstream retailers. Based on total capacity available, the manufacturer needs to find ways to best use the capacity by determining whether or not to release the capacity information to retailers. The third paper looks at competition in a more complicated supply chain structure. A retailer buys three brands of products from two manufacturers. One manufacturer produces both branded and private label products, and the other one manufactures a branded product only. With our model, we are able to determine the profits of each supply chain agent. At the end of the paper, we use data from the Australian milk industry and discuss a problem in which a manufacturer needs to decide how to allocate capacity between the national brand and the private label when there is a capacity shortage.

The Chinese tourists market has become the 4th largest inbound market for New Zealand in 2007; it also ranks 6th in terms of expenditure. Chinese visitors spent a total of NZ $352 million to the year December 2006, an average of NZ $3,340 per person (Ministry of Tourism, 2006). The latest statistics released from New Zealand Tourism Research Council show that 122,045 Chinese visited New Zealand by the year ended January 2008. These crucial statistics – market size, length of stay and average spend – indicate the necessity for the New Zealand tourism industry to understand and provide for Chinese expectations and requirements. Auckland is New Zealand's key gateway, and it is vital that Auckland provides a first good impression for the rest of country. Chinese travellers visit New Zealand with great desire and expectations of experiencing an exotic land. They expect Auckland, as the biggest city in New Zealand, to provide them with a memorable city experience in a developed country. The purpose of this research is to study Chinese tourists' expectations and travel experiences, with a particular focus on investigating whether Auckland can provide suitable services and experiences which match their requirements and expectations. The research will build on the study by Bull (1991) and Ryan (1995), which looked at supply demand relationships and at the tourism industry attempts to balance the supply with the actual demands. It will also build on work by Zhao (2006) and Qu (2006) which explored the dimensions of Chinese demand and distribution channel factors at both origin and destination. The goal is to establish which factors are adequate or inadequate. A synthesis of the demand supply situation will enable the development of recommendations. It is envisage that these recommendations could be adopted by local government and the tourism industry, either as actions or as improvements to policy. With regards to the purpose of this research, a qualitative method was decided as the most relevant approach. Qualitative methods are useful for revealing and understanding what lies are behind any phenomenon about which little is known. Grounded theory is a qualitative research method that was developed for the purpose of studying a social phenomenon, and to generate a theory relating to a particular situation (Strauss & Corbin, 1994). The historical bases of the grounded theory approach matches the aim of this research, namely to reveal the relationships between tourists and the tourism industry and to gain a better understanding of Chinese tourists' expectation and satisfaction, and the level of the service which the Auckland tourism industry provides to Chinese travellers needs to match the Chinese market and requirements of travellers. The interviews were conducted with both Chinese travellers and the Auckland tourism industry, including hotel managers, restaurant managers, gift/souvenirs shop assistants, tour guides, and so on. The research shows Auckland is not ready for Chinese market yet. This result comes from three aspects: firstly, most Chinese tourists do not have clear requirements or expectations of Auckland before they come to New Zealand. This is mainly because of the limited promotional materials available in China about Auckland. Secondly, Chinese tourists do not have many opportunities to get to know Auckland's attractions and activities after they arrive in Auckland. Auckland city is New Zealand's most popular urban tourism destination in terms of population and gateway function provides tourism facilities and services to Chinese tourists. However, the findings highlighted most Chinese tourists found Auckland's tourism attractions to be unattractive to them due to the language barrier and itinerary issues. Thirdly, the research also found Chinese tourists have been driven away due to lack of hotel accommodations in Auckland, especially in the shoulder or high seasons. Auckland's accommodation facilities are facing a challenge. The increasing domestic and international visitors' numbers and insufficient hotel accommodations will be the major problem for Auckland for the next decade. Most of the Chinese tourists who were interviewed expressed their hope of knowing more about Auckland, however, these hopes will go unrealised until the city provides better attractions and more services for them.

Doctor of Philosophy / Buyer-supplier relationships have been increasingly considered a critical part of contemporary supply chain management. In response to dynamic and unpredictable market changes, buyers and suppliers enter into cooperative relationships to pursue individual goals and joint goals for better economic and non-economic performance of the supply chain. On the other hand, cooperation between channel members is surrounded by uncertainty, which can create a detrimental impact on the performance of a supply chain. Previous research has focused on various aspects of uncertainty that could affect supply chain member behaviour. The present research contends that relationship behavioural factors play an important role in increasing or mitigating channel members’ perceived uncertainty in their supply or purchase decision-making. Specifically, the purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of retailer-supplier cooperation and retailer/supplier’s decision-making uncertainty (DMU) on retail supply chain performance from the perspectives of both the retailer and the supplier. A holistic model was developed as the theoretical framework for this conceptualisation. A sample of 202 retailers and 64 suppliers in the sporting goods retail business in Taiwan was used to separately test a number of hypothesised relationships by using structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that both cooperation and DMU are the key determinants of retail supply chain performance, including financial performance and non-financial performance (i.e., supply flexibility and customer service). Financial performance is positively affected by retailer-supplier cooperation and negatively affected by DMU in both the retailer model and the supplier model. The five dimensions of retailer-supplier cooperation (i.e. trust, guanxi, dependence, coercive power and non-coercive power) have significant effects on cooperation. However, apart from guanxi with the retailer/supplier, neither other relationship dimensions nor retailer-supplier cooperation have any influence on retailer’s DMU or supplier’s DMU. The results also indicate that differences and similarities exist across retailers and suppliers with respect to the effects of several relationship dimensions on cooperation and uncertainty. 2 The holistic empirical model developed for this research contributes further to understanding the links, which have been lacking in the extant channel relationship literature and supply chain management literature, between buyer-supplier relationships, DMU, and supply chain performance. The findings that a retailer/supplier’s DMU can erode the performance of a supply chain in various aspects highlight the need for improvement in some areas of supply chain efficiency and effectiveness, through cooperation-enhancing actions between the retailer and the supplier. From a managerial perspective, the performance improvement in the supply chain, in turn, will motivate more reciprocal commitment and efforts from the retailer and the supplier to maintain their working relationship. As such, mutual trust and enriched guanxi, dependence and non-coercive power help both the retailer and the supplier to have less uncertainty in their purchase/supply decision-making process. It creates a win-win position for both parties in the supply chain.

Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology)--University of Arizona, 1982. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-48).

Thesis (M.S. - Hydrology and Water Resources)--University of Arizona. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-140).