Economics is nowadays most often defined by the framework in which it offers explanations, not by a list of topics that it deals with. Economic explanation consists in the reduction of the phenomena under investigation to the interaction of decision-making individuals. This conception, often dubbed “economic imperialism” is a frequent target of criticism. The present article shows that the problem is not necessarily the ambition of economists to explain the results of all types of decision-making, but rather one of the impoverished concept of decision-making that economists employ. An analytical division of decision-making is offered, distinguishing between the level of the structuring of a problem and the level of solving a problem, enabling us to clearly determine the contribution of economics and the limits of its application. I argue that economics, operating only at the second level of decision-making, may make a basic contribution to the empirical explanation of social phenomena, but does not provide an explanation itself. Explanation must take an „historical“ form and it must include possible changes in the interpretation of the choice problem the individuals under scrutiny face. My conclusion is then applied to the question of whom economic explanation is intended for, what it is meant to serve, and of whether
Business today faces a managerial transition to adapt a new decision-making criterion and a course of action; namely, “corporate sustainability.” Corporate social responsibility can be embedded in (or fostered by) value-based management. In any case, adopting CSR as a part of a firm’s strategy and operations requires changed standards for decision-making. Decision-makers face the challenge of following tangible and intangible goals of multiple stakeholders. This study provides insights into how multi criteria decision tools can be harnessed to operationalize CSR. The method applied in the article is a systematic international literature review. The findings suggest that papers aimed at using MCDM to enhance CSR management are mostly newer publications. Three important research avenues have emerged. In the first avenue, MCDMs are seen and used to enhance managerial decisions where a number of heterogenic goals must be achieved. The second avenue is where MCDMs are seen and used to evaluate a firm’s quantitative and qualitative outcomes in terms of values created for multiple stakeholders. The third trend is connected with sustainable supply-chain management.
Background and purpose: Induced travel demand (ITD) is a phenomenon where road construction increases vehicles’ kilometers traveled. It has been approached with econometric models that use elasticities as measure to estimate how much travel demand can be induced by new roads. However, there is a lack of “white-box” models with causal hypotheses that explain the structural complexity underlying this phenomenon. We propose a system dynamics model based on a feedback mechanism to explain structurally ITD. Methodology: A system dynamics methodology was selected to model and simulate ITD. First, a causal loop diagram is proposed to describe the ITD structure in terms of feedback loops. Then a stock-flows diagram is formulated to allow computer simulation. Finally, simulations are run to show the quantitative temporal evolution of the model built. Results: The simulation results show how new roads in the short term induce more kilometers traveled by vehicles already in use; meanwhile, in the medium-term, new traffic is generated. These new car drivers appear when better flow conditions coming from new roads increase attractiveness of car use. More cars added to vehicles already in use produce new traffic congestion, and high travel speeds provided by roads built are absorbed by ITD effects. Conclusion: We concluded that approaching ITD with a systemic perspective allows for identifying leverage points that contribute to design comprehensive policies aimed to cope with ITD. In this sense, the model supports decision- making processes in urban contexts wherein it is still necessary for road construction to guarantee connectivity, such as the case of developing countries.
This paper presents the issue of assessing the validity and effectiveness of implementing a Business Intelligence system in an IT Support Organization. This entity provides IT services to external clients involving, in particular, the storage and processing of large amounts of data. The vast amount of realized projects and also incidents reported in connection with those projects prevented effective decisions from being made without the support of dedicated technologies. The authors present the problems encountered by the studied entity and describe the tool that was selected to improve the situation. The aim of this study is to measure and describe the key processes in the organization on the basis of prepared aggregated measures, first prior to the implementation of the BI system and then a year after its implementation. The evaluation model developed by the authors allowed the assessment of the key aspects of the company’s operation over 2 years. It thus helped decision makers to establish whether the decision to implement the Business Intelligence system was correct or not.
Research on decision making has mainly been based on economic models that have tried to downplay the overall context of decision-making situations. When we look into the social influences on decision making we realize it is crucial that we bring the issue of context back into the spotlight. In the present paper we explore the methodological foundations of selected qualitative approaches for studying social influences on decision-making, focusing especially on their strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that this area has great potential for further research providing academic rigor is maintained when using qualitative methods.
Change can be difficult to achieve, and system inertia may be considered relevant. There is a tendency for dynamic systems to enter into specific states characterized by stabilizing factors. The present work attempts to define inertia processes and explores these with regard to pro-environmental behaviour and decision-making. Inertia processes can be considered both within an organizational context and from the level of the individual, and may involve a number of psychological processes and aspects of the decision-making process. A few suggestions for research are also presented.
In the context of school network optimizing, the fate of small rural schools in Latvia has been a topical issue for politicians at the national and local level for almost a decade. As one of the main reasons talking about the depopulation of rural areas and the reduction in the number of students on formal education programs, that each new school year begins with news about the closure of several rural schools. At the same time, documents of political planning, scientific publications and research emphasize the special role of rural schools in further development, implementing state and local government obligations to provide residents with access to vital services, including education, to make attractive rural communities existence and to discover opportunities for their sustainable development. In recent decades theoretical approaches has also emphasized the role of local communities and their participation in rural development processes (the endogenous development model), while also taking into account the specific regional needs (the neo-endogenous model). The actions of various agents involved in the education system and the activity of rural communities aimed at preserving schools and the creation of multifunctional centres as one of a schools survival strategies are analysed in this article, based on the empirical data obtained in the framework of the international comparative project “Rural depopulation and the governance of education: comparative study of Latvia and Norway”: a survey of Latvian municipality education field specialists (n = 103) and quantitative survey data and the study of specific characteristic cases of representatives of small rural school administration (N = 200). The results of local governments and school administrations survey point to a direct link between the level of development of the territory (for analysis purpose all state municipalities have been grouped according to territorial development index (TDI)) and the accessibility of education, as well as the degree of activity of education agents and local communities in decision-making processes. Closure of small schools during the last 5 years most often affected economically less developed, poor municipalities. Analysis of empirical evidence suggests that the smaller the economic and social resource of municipality is ñ the smaller is the social capital of its inhabitants. In municipalities with the lowest TDI, there is comparatively weak activity of local population, a desire to take part in decision-making in support against the closure of schools. In this situation, every local government, administration/teachers of schools, as well as local residents, are forced to take responsibility for finding solutions that are based not only on economic calculations or received as direct instructions from higher institutions. Many municipalities together with schools administration search and find solutions due to expansion of functions of schools, cooperation with other municipalities and in other ways. The study is conducted with the support of funding from the EEA / Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 under Project Contract no. NFI/R/2014/014.
Research background: Most of the modern central banks (CBs) acknowledge the role of economic agents’ expectations in monetary policy. To shape these expectations and to over-come the lags occurrence, CBs produce and reveal macroeconomic forecast and declare that it is the input into their deliberations and monetary policy adjustments. This is how central banks implement inflation forecast targeting. The formal assessments of actual forecast importance in central banks’ decisions is not presented in the literature — to the best author’s knowledge. Purpose of the article: The paper is of methodological nature. It presents the index that compares inflation forecast importance in the central banks decisions. The elaboration of such index is the main goal of the paper. The index is tested empirically for Czechia and Sweden. Methods: Comparably to other research presenting the tools that approximate some qualitative variables, the methodological part of the paper offers the description of the factors covered by the index with their justification and point attribution. The index is suitable to assess CBs decision’s accordance with the forecast produced under constant rate assumption as well as under endogenous interest rates. It is designed to cover low quality data as the time series on the central path of the forecast are not always accessible. In this cases only the relation of the forecast to the inflation target is revealed on the fan charts. Findings & Value added: The index elaboration and its calculation for Czechia and Sweden is presented in the paper. It thus contributes to the literature on ex post assessment of the central bank’s actions. This formalized assessment opens the field for making further con-clusions on inflation forecast targeting implementations and possible impact of the forecast on the economic agents' expectations.
By discretising the stochastic demand, a deterministic nonlinear programming formulation is developed. Then, a hybrid simulation-optimisation heuristic that capitalises on the nature of the problem is designed. The outcome is an evaluation problem that is efficiently solved using a spreadsheet model. The main contribution of the paper is providing production managers with a tr actable formulation of the production planning problem in a stochastic environment and an efficient solution scheme. A key benefit of this approach is that it provides quick near-optimal so lutions without requiring in-depth knowledge or significant investments in optimisation techniques and software.
The modern enterprise operates in a turbulent, demanding and unstable environment. Technical and technological progress as well as socioeconomic development create new opportunities but, at the same time, they force enterprises to continuously increase the quantity and quality of the products and services offered. Enterprises, wanting to meet the expectations and requirements of the market, are forced to look for and introduce innovative, risky and expensive solutions. The focus of enterprises on innovative solutions in the area of management is conditioned by an accurate diagnosis of the current situation and also by accurate determination of the direction of future activities. This article aims to show how Polish enterprises demonstrated innovation in 2013–2016 and what kind of innovations were introduced. The second goal of the article is to answer the question of whether it is worthwhile developing innovations in organizations and whether they are an important element of the company’s development.
A new approach to security issues associated with the use of teleinformatics systems in the decision-making process has been presented. There is a discussion of the relationship between the security of informatics systems and the security of the decision-making process in which they are used, in particular regarding the threats resulting from the use of informatics systems and modern teleinformatics technologies. In addition, an overview of the dangers that could have a significant impact on appropriate decision-making has been performed. The paper points out the possible ways to ensure security depending on the type of threats encountered. In particular, threats particularly linked with the security of informatics systems supporting decision-making have been identified.
The community nowadays is defined as a group with a social affiliation, shared value, and interaction that links these members together. Participation of the community in decision making is considered essential characteristics of democracy and particularly of the local government. Thus local governments, through various democratic forms, seek to involve the community to be part of the decision-making process. Various studies and reports in Kosovo do emphasize that participation of the community in policy design and development is low. For this purpose, this paper aims to analyse the community’s participation of the community in the decision-making process with a particular emphasis on the municipality of Pristina. The research provides a holistic approach to community development in the municipality of Pristina, the level of participation in decision-making processes, forms of communication between local government and the community, and the impact of community development in drafting public policies at the local level. The methodology used here is focused on the different studies and reports on local government and community, and also on quantitative research on public opinion measurement as well. The overall results of this paper emphasize that although there are institutional mechanisms for participation in decision-making, there is a decrease in community participation in decision-making and in the process of drafting and developing local public policies.
This academic paper presents results of research conducted in 2012 in a production business in south Poland where the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method was applied. The objective of the research was to establish the level of risk for selected factors resulting from higher production output of the business in focus. Moreover, selection of the decision-making variant burdened by the lowest risk priority for the achievement of goals set comprised an important research criterion. The application of ANP facilitated a comprehensive approach to the issue in focus. The overriding goal was to demonstrate the efficacy of the method in solving multi-criteria decision problems, especially those which require risk analysis.
Business models and business model change have drawn increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners across various disciplines, including the domain of entrepreneurship. However, even though the importance of business model innovation as a driver of firm performance has been widely acknowledged, empirical studies explaining the business model change remain limited. This study contributes to prior research by examining the effects of effectual and causation-based decisionmaking logics on the degree of business model change in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises in Finland. The findings of hierarchical regression analysis show that both causation and effectuation-based logics have positive effects on business model change, thereby highlighting the need for both strategizing and seizing of opportunities in business model development.
The paper is a kind of personal account on the field research of the Ride of the Kings in Vlčnov (May, 2012). Based on this field notes, the author suggests an approach to the event based on the methodologies of political antropology focusing on the concepts of ownership, control, decision-making. He proposes that this kind of approach may reveal the motivations and dynamism of the changes made by the participants of the event. The traditional descriptive perspective seems to be not enough for discovering the motivation of the changes year by year. It might be more useful for the researchers to perceive (and to be perceived) the Ride of the Kings in the ’power field´ of different decision-makers related to the event, not only locally, but on regional, national and international levels as well. It may help us answer some questions, for instance: Who decides about the person of the King and other ’actors’, about the route and stations of the procession (the Ride), about the participants of the festival and the fair. Who decided about the change of the original date and time of the ritual, about the age of the King, about turning the former intimate elements of the ritual into public „performances”, e.g. preparation of the Ride of the Kings at the house of his family? Who decided about the nomination of the Ride of the Kings to the UNESCO’s List, in order to make it more visible as an identity symbol? What motivated the decision makers for their decision? The author presumes that the discovery of the sense and consciousness of different kinds of ownership may reveal the system of control and the intentions for taking responsibilities.
The paper provides an analysis of the impact of negative emotions on decision-making processes. It questions the common-sense view that negative emotions diminish rationality of decisions, i.e., increase the probability of making suboptimal choices. It is argued in the paper that this view is untenable on the grounds of neuroscience, cognitive science and evolutionary theory: the results provided by these sciences support the view that negative emotions in most instances of their occurrence, i.e. types of negative emotions, not only fail to undermine rationality of decision-making but substantially contribute to it. This does mean saying that token-negative emotions never undermine rationality of decision-making. But, as is argued in the paper, the fact that token-negative emotions may have sometimes this kind of negative effect is fully consistent with the claim that, as a rule, the effect is positive, so that one can speak about the causal connection between types of negative emotion and rational decision-making.
The purpose of the paper is to synthesize the issues of human wisdom in terms of minds which create knowledge-based judgment. We form a transdisciplinary, bigpicture view of the wisdom of humans. Findings: Wisdom is the right judgment and choice in the context of the art of living. Practical implications: Wisdom can be developed within the set of minds. Social implications: To pursue wisdom in thinking and action, one must extend education to embrace more knowledge and practicing gaining better skills in decision-making. Originality: This approach offers a new understanding of the wisdom of humans, which cannot be identified as a synonym of knowledge.
Building meaning implies the existence, or maybe the creation, in some cases, of a given context. Hence, context is a key element in the comprehension process. Translation as a linguistic act, based upon making ambiguous foreign language texts legible in one’s mother tongue or vice versa, relies primarily on interpretation. In fact, one’s understanding of a text depends on one’s understanding of its content as well as its context in the first place. Nevertheless, such a statement raises many questions whose answers are no Gospel truth. As a matter of fact, interpretation in the translation of political speeches is a case in point; it determines strategies to be adopted and positions to be taken as well.
Purpose of the article There is relatively a big number of brands in the market of laptops nowadays in Albania. It appears that the number of brands offered in this market could easily be compared to the number of brands in Europe and even broader. The purpose of this study is to help Albanian vendors understand the criteria that consumers take into consideration when they make the decision to purchase a laptop. Methodology/methods The research is based on the collection and the analyses of the primary data collected through interviews to people like managers or employees who work in the sector of trading laptops or in businesses like education where laptops are broadly used recently; then a survey is done through a questionnaire delivered to customers who already own and use a laptop and customers who are potential buyers of laptops. Scientific aim The aim of the research is to identify if there are any relationships between the demographics of the consumers and the criteria of buying a laptop; on the other hand, to find out how is the relationship between the demographics and the features of different brands. Findings The study found out that Albanian consumers have good knowledge of laptops and their brands, and they use different sources of information for making their decisions in buying a laptop; it is found that there are relationships between some demographics like age or gender and the appraisal for some attributes of the laptops like price, design and high graphics card; it is also found that some technical features and other attributes of using laptops are some of the determinants that influence the laptops’ purchases. Conclusions It is realized that one of the most important demographics of the consumers is their age. Some core features like RAM, ROM, battery life, processor quality, light weight or attributes that are connected to the purposes of using the laptop computers like practicality and mobility in using them, work and studying processes, quick access to the internet are determinant factors which influence the decision making process of purchasing a laptop. I would recommend that future researches be focused also on the relationship between the customers’ income and their preferred brand or ranking brands according to the customers’ preferences. Such studies should also extend outside the city of Tirana.
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