bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Mass Customisation on Manufacturing Trade‐offs
Authors: Squire Brian , Brown Steve , Readman Jeff , Bessant John
Published: August 2010

Management literature has suggested that the advent of mass customisation marks the end for trade‐offs between customisation and other competitive priorities (Pine et al. 1993; Westbrook and Williamson 1993; Tu et al. 2001). However, evidence supporting this proposition is anecdotal. This paper examines the impact of product customisation on four competitive priorities, drawing upon the results of a recent survey of 102 U.K. manufacturing firms from eight industry sectors. The study indicates significant compatibility between customisation and quality, volume flexibility, delivery reliability and non‐manufacturing costs. On the other hand, trade‐offs remain between customisation and manufacturing costs and delivery lead times. The results contradict the initial proposition that customisation can be “free,” and have important implications for firms embarking upon a mass customisation strategy.
Modeling and Managing the Percentage of Satisfied Customers in Hidden and Revealed Waiting Line Systems
Authors: Chambers Chester , Kouvelis Panagiotis
Published: August 2010

We perform an analysis of various queueing systems with an emphasis on estimating a single performance metric. This metric is defined to be the percentage of customers whose actual waiting time was less than their individual waiting time threshold. We label this metric the Percentage of Satisfied Customers (PSC.) This threshold is a reflection of the customers' expectation of a reasonable waiting time in the system given its current state. Cases in which no system state information is available to the customer are referred to as “hidden queues.” For such systems, the waiting time threshold is independent of the length of the waiting line, and it is randomly drawn from a distribution of threshold values for the customer population. The literature generally assumes that such thresholds are exponentially distributed. For these cases, we derive closed form expressions for our performance metric for a variety of possible service time distributions. We also relax this assumption for cases where service times are exponential and derive closed form results for a large class of threshold distributions. We analyze such queues for both single and multi‐server systems. We refer to cases in which customers may observe the length of the line as “revealed” queues.“ We perform a parallel analysis for both single and multi‐server revealed queues. The chief distinction is that for these cases, customers may develop threshold values that are dependent upon the number of customers in the system upon their arrival. The new perspective this paper brings to the modeling of the performance of waiting line systems allows us to rethink and suggest ways to enhance the effectiveness of various managerial options for improving the service quality and customer satisfaction of waiting line systems. We conclude with many useful insights on ways to improve customer satisfaction in waiting line situations that follow directly from our analysis.
Effects of Random Yield in Remanufacturing with Price‐Sensitive Supply and Demand
Authors: Bakal Ismail Serdar , Akcali Elif
Published: August 2010

In this study, we investigate the effects of recovery yield rate on pricing decisions in reverse supply chains. Motivated by the automotive parts remanufacturing industry, we consider an end‐of‐life product from which a particular part can be recovered and remanufactured for reuse, and the remainder of the product can be recycled for material recovery. Both the supply of end‐of‐life products and demand for remanufactured parts are price‐sensitive. Yield of the recovery process is random and depends on the acquisition price offered for the end‐of‐life products. In this setting, we develop models to determine the optimal acquisition price for the end‐of‐life products and the selling price for remanufactured parts. We also analyze the effects of yield variation to the profitability of remanufacturing, benefits of delaying pricing decisions until after yield realization, and value of perfect yield rate information.
Empirical Research Published in Production and Operations Management (1992–2005): Trends and Future Research Directions
Authors: Gupta Sushil , Verma Rohit , Victorino Liana
Published: August 2010

We review and evaluate empirical research in more than 150 papers published in Production and Operations Management ( POM) during 1992 to 2005 to assess how far the papers' authors have met the journaľs stated objective of promoting empirical research. We also assess the diversity of articles in terms of the purposes of research, data collection approaches, and data analysis techniques. We classify the empirical research articles based on their primary purpose (theory building, theory verifying, application, and providing evidence), data collection approach (case study, qualitative research, archival research, survey‐based research, laboratory research, and field research), data analysis technique (descriptive statistics, various multivariate statistical techniques, and mathematical modeling), and operations topics (strategy, quality, and supply chain management). We also discuss directions for future empirical research in operations management.

During 1992 to 2005, the articles based on empirical data have increased substantially from 30 to 50 percent of all articles published in POM. During 1992 to 1998, about three‐fourths of the empirical‐research‐based articles published in POM focused on the manufacturing industry, but recently the gap between the numbers of manufacturing‐ and service‐focused articles published in POM has almost disappeared. While a previous assessment of articles published in a range of operations management journals showed that almost all of the empirical articles were based on either surveys or case studies, our results indicate that POM has published articles that were based on a much wider and more diverse range of data collection approaches. Production and Operations Management has clearly established itself as a leading outlet for publishing empirical research in operations management.
A Diagnostic Tree for Improving Production Line Performance
Authors: Hopp Wallace J. , Iravani Seyed M. R. , Shou Biying
Published: August 2010

Improving performance of production systems is a critical but often unstructured activity. To help managers convert ad hoc or trial & error improvement efforts into efficient and systematic reviews, we develop a diagnostic tree which decomposes a performance improvement objective into successively more concrete sub‐objectives and finally into potential improvement strategies. Based on principles from the Operations Management literature, this tree is structured to enable a non‐specialist to better understand the links between corrective actions and performance. It also provides an important foundation for a principles‐based knowledge management system that couples the decision tree with a search engine for locating relevant documents within an intranet.
Following the Thread: Industry Cluster Theory, the New England Cotton Textiles Industry, and Implications for Future Supply Chain Research
Authors: Bozarth Cecil , Blackhurst Jennifer , Handfield Robert B.
Published: August 2010

The purpose of this paper is to introduce supply chain management researchers to industry cluster theory within the context of supply chain management decisions. Industry cluster theory emphasizes the explicit and implicit benefits that accrue to various economic players due to geographic proximity. As such, it provides a contrasting view to the current pressure on supply chains to seek out the “best” partners, regardless of location. We review the theory behind industry clusters, and illustrate it using the example of the New England cotton textile industry. Incorporating these concepts into future research has the potential to improve our understanding of how decisions regarding supply chain location and sourcing decisions are currently made, and what role location‐based benefits should play in these decisions.
Bob Hayes: Forty Years of Leading Operations Management Into Uncharted Waters
Authors: Fisher Marshall L.
Published: August 2010

The enormous contributions of Bob Hayes to Operations Management (OM) are reviewed. His early work made innovative contributions to probability theory and utility estimation that enabled existing Operations Research theory to be applicable to real problems. Later, inspired by field trips to Japanese and German manufacturers, he joined Kim Clark to conduct an ambitious study of 12 plants in three companies, establishing the impact on productivity of factors such as reject rate, work‐in‐process, and production rate variation. In the 1980s, when adoption of advanced manufacturing automation was in vogue, Bob joined Jai Jaikumar to offer a caution, that new manufacturing technologies required new ways of managing and that advanced technology coupled with obsolete management would produce poorer, not better, results. Perhaps Bob's greatest contribution was to raise OM to a more strategic level. With numerous coauthors, notably Steve Wheelwright, he provided a framework for corporate and manufacturing strategy and showed how to achieve alignment between the two, particularly in the choice of production processes. Recent papers articulated a vision for OM in which a focus on the issues of operating managers provides a consistent framework, but enables our research agenda to evolve as the world's economy changes.
Focusing on Customer Time in Field Service: A Normative Approach
Authors: Apte Aruna , Apte Uday M. , Venugopal Nandagopal
Published: August 2010

Although customer convenience should be rightfully considered a central element in field services, the customer experience suggests that service enterprises rarely take the customer's preferred time into account in making operational and scheduling decisions. In this paper we present the results of our exploratory research into two interrelated topics: the explicit inclusion of customer time in nonemergency field service delivery decisions and the analysis of trade‐off between the customer's convenience and field service provider's cost. Based on prior research in service quality we identify and illustrate two time‐based performance metrics that are particularly appropriate for assessing service quality in nonemergency field services: performance and conformance quality. To determine vehicle routes, we develop a hybrid heuristic derived from the existing and proven heuristic methods. A numerical example closely patterned after real‐life data is generated and used within a computational experiment to investigate alternate policies for promise time windows. Our experiment shows that over a reasonable range of customer cost parameters the policy of shorter promise time windows reduces the combined total cost incurred by the provider and the customers and should be considered a preferred policy by the field service provider. Managerial implications of this result are discussed.
Optimal Control of Selling Channels for an Online Retailer with Cost‐per‐Click Payments and Seasonal Products
Authors: Chen Frank Y. , Chen Jian , Xiao Yongbo
Published: August 2010

The problem studied in this paper is a predigestion of the decision faced by online retailers (etailers) that advertise on publisher or comparison‐shopping websites. An etailer may sell its product not only through its online and bricks‐and‐mortar stores, but also through the websites of one or more third parties (e.g., Yahoo.com). However, the etailer has to pay a certain amount to such third parties in an action‐based payment scheme, such as a cost‐per‐click (CPC) scheme. Under the CPC scheme, payment is based solely on click‐throughs, which means that the etailer pays only when a shopper clicks through to the product page of its website. Only a fraction of such clicks lead to actual sales. The extra cost that is associated with shoppers who first click through to the third‐party websites makes them less attractive as customers than those who directly visit the etailer's online store. Moreover, the CPC rate for a prominent placement is normally set by competitive bidding, and thus varies over time. Therefore, the etailer needs to decide dynamically whether or not to list on a third‐party website. The structural properties of the optimal policy are discussed, and numerical examples are given to show the revenue impact of dynamic listing control.
Auctions within E‐Sourcing Events
Authors: Elmaghraby Wedad
Published: August 2010

The paper presents a survey of current industry practices in designing and running auctions as part of e‐sourcing events. We report our findings from numerous interviews with auction makers in leading e‐sourcing application vendors. The differences between auction theory and auction practice pose a number of interesting and important research questions for the Operations Management community; we conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and open research questions.
Electronic Markets for Truckload Transportation
Authors: Caplice Chris
Published: August 2010

A wide variety of electronic marketplace formats are used in the Truckload (TL) transportation industry, including combinatorial auctions, private and public exchanges, and electronic catalogs. Combinatorial multi‐attribute auctions are commonly used strategically to populate electronic catalogs, commonly called “routing guides,” with pricing, assignments, and priority logic. Private and public exchanges are used to complement the electronic catalogs in cases where the catalog fails. This paper discusses the TL transportation market, places the procurement of services in the context of electronic marketplace formats, and illustrates how these are currently used.
Ranked Items Auctions and Online Advertisement
Authors: Feng Juan , Shen Zuo‐Jun Max , Zhan Roger Lezhou
Published: August 2010

We study auctions for a set of commonly‐ranked items where each buyer has unit demand. This setting has promising applications in areas such as keyword auctions in the search engine advertising industry, the sale of quality‐ranked raw materials, etc. An auction mechanism suitable for this setting is the simultaneous pooled auction (SPA), where each bidder simultaneously submits a single bid and is allocated an object based on the rank of his bid among all the bids. We study how to improve the seller's expected revenue by enforcing a reserve price in an SPA. We find that the use of an appropriate reserve price may significantly increase the seller's revenue, especially when the number of items for sale is relatively large compared to the number of participating bidders. One inherent problem in the SPA is that some bidders may incur ex post losses; that is, they pay more than what they value the received objects. We propose a tailored VCG mechanism that generates the same expected revenue as the SPA does, while bidders do not incur any ex post loss. We also discuss the potential applications of this research to keyword auctions.
Operations Risk Management: Overview of Paul Kleindorfer's Contributions
Authors: Cohen Morris A. , Kunreuther Howard
Published: August 2010

This paper reviews Paul Kleindorfer's contributions to Operations Management (OM), with a special focus on his research on risk management. An annotated bibliography of selected other contributions reviews the breadth of topics that have occupied Kleindorfer's research attention over his now 45 + years of research. These include optimal control theory, scheduling theory, decision sciences, investment planning and peak load pricing, plus a number of important applications in network industries and insurance. In the area of operations risk management, we review recent work that Kleindorfer and his colleagues in the Wharton Risk Center have undertaken on environmental management and operations, focusing on process safety and environmental risks in the chemical industry. This work is directly related to Kleindorfer's work in the broader area of “sustainable operations”, which he, Kal Singhal and Luk Van Wassenhove recently surveyed as part of the new initiative at POMS to encompass sustainable management practices within the POMS community. Continuing in the area of supply chain risks, the paper reviews Kleindorfer's contributions to the development of an integrated framework for contracting and risk hedging for supply management. The emphasis on alignment of pricing, performance and risk management in this framework is presaged in the work undertaken by Kleindorfer and his co‐authors in the 1980s on after‐sales support services for high‐technology products. This work on supply chain risk, and its successors, is reviewed here in light of its growing importance in managing the unbundled and global supply chains characteristic of the new economy.
Mandated RFID and Institutional Responses: Cases of Decentralized Business Units
Authors: Barratt Mark , Choi Thomas
Published: August 2010

Using a theory‐building approach based on case studies, this research explores the responses of four decentralized business units to institutional pressure to adopt Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) technology. The institutional pressure emanates from the Department of Defense, and the affected decentralized business units operate in a large defense contractor. Institutional theory explains how organizations respond to external pressures to adopt new procedures, policies, and technologies. The case studies show how business units vary in their response to the RFID mandate and how different internal dynamics manifest. The responses range from complying faithfully, primarily concerned with satisfying the external constituent, to completely ignoring the mandate and focusing on internal efficiency initiative utilizing RFID. A number of propositions are developed to better understand the organizational responses to exogenous pressure to implement RFID. The paper concludes by proposing future research directions and issues that must be considered further.
RFID for Better Supply‐Chain Management through Enhanced Information Visibility
Authors: Delen Dursun , Hardgrave Bill C. , Sharda Ramesh
Published: August 2010

Mostly fueled by mandates, adoption, and implementation of the RFID, technology in the retail industry is growing rapidly. At these early stages of adoption, one puzzling issue for retailers and suppliers is the compelling business case for RFID. In order to explore the potential business case for RFID, we conducted a case study using actual RFID data collected by a major retailer for the cases shipped by one of its major suppliers. We show the physical layout of the RFID readers on a partial supply‐chain covering product movement from distribution centers to retail stores. First, in the analysis phase, we identify several performance metrics that can be computed from the RFID readings. Next, using this RFID data, we compute the values of those performance metrics. These values represent mean time between movements at different locations. Then, we discuss how these measures can assist in improving logistical performance at a micro supply chain level of operations between a distribution center and a retail store. We present how such information can be valuable to both the retail store operator and the supplier. We also discuss the initial lessons learned from actual RFID data collected in the field, in terms of data quality issues.
John A. Buzacott and His Pioneering Contributions to Manufacturing and Service Systems
Authors: Shanthikumar J. George , Yao David D.
Published: August 2010

John A. Buzacott is a pioneering and premier contributor to the field of production and operations management. He has been a principal architect of the development of a unified framework and a rigorous engineering foundation for many of the major approaches currently used in the design, planning, and control of manufacturing and service systems. His innovative use of stochastic models to explain many phenomena occurring in manufacturing and service organizations has distinguished him not only as a great researcher but also as a great teacher. His contributions have inspired scholars throughout the world. We provide an overview of John's research works and accomplishments.
A Comparison of Unconstraining Methods to Improve Revenue Management Systems
Authors: Queenan Carrie Crystal , Ferguson Mark , Higbie Jon , Kapoor Rohit
Published: August 2010

Asuccessful revenue management system requires accurate demand forecasts for each customer segment. The forecasts are used to set booking limits for lower value customers to ensure an adequate supply for higher value customers. The very use of booking limits, however, constrains the historical demand data needed for an accurate forecast. Ignoring this interaction leads to substantial penalties in a firm's potential revenues. We review existing unconstraining methods and propose a new method that includes some attractive properties not found in the existing methods. We evaluate several of the common unconstraining methods against our proposed method by testing them on intentionally constrained simulated data. Results indicate our proposed method outperforms other methods in two of three data sets. We also test the revenue impact of our proposed method, expectation maximization (EM), and “no unconstraining” on actual booking data from a hotel/casino. We show that performance varies with the initial starting protection limits and a lack of unconstraining leads to significant revenue losses.
OPTIMAL‐SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF MULTI‐SPECIES FISHERIES: LESSONS FROM A PREDATOR‐PREY MODEL
Authors: WOODWARD RICHARD T. , BISHOP RICHARD C.
Published: August 2010

ABSTRACT. In this paper we consider the meaning of sustainable resource management in multi‐dimensional resources. Based on the principle of intergenerational fairness, we define fisheries management as sustainable if it does not lead to a decline in the net present value of the fishery. If sustainability, or intergenerational fairness, were held as an obligation by fishery managers, then the traditional present‐value maximization objective would be constrained. Using numerical solutions to a simple predator‐prey model, we explore how the optimal‐sustainable management of this fishery would differ from management that seeks to maximize the present value of the benefits. General lessons regarding the meaning of sustainable fishery management are discussed.
EXISTENCE AND UNIQUENESS FOR HEIGHT STRUCTURED HIERARCHICAL POPULATION MODELS
Authors: KRAEV EGOR A.
Published: August 2010

ABSTRACT. We consider a nonlinear height‐structured McKendrick forest model with vital rates of a tree depending on its height and the total leaf area above it, represented as a weighted integral over all higher trees. We consider two types of the weighing factor, corresponding to foliage being concentrated on top of a tree, respectively distributed continuously along the trunk.

We prove local existence of continuous solutions for continuous initial conditions and derive a sharp condition on the coefficients ensuring the existence of global in time, continuous solutions for arbitrary continuous data.

In the case where this condition is not fulfilled, we illustrate how singularities can emerge out of continuous initial conditions by relating our model to Burgers' equation.

The analysis uses a coordinate transform which brings the model into a particularly simple form, reducing the first order partial differential equation to a family of coupled ordinary differential equations for population density and height as functions of characteristic variables.
A SIMPLIFIED FEEDBACK APPROACH TO OPTIMAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Authors: SANDAL LEIF K. , STEINSHAMN STEIN I.
Published: August 2010

ABSTRACT. Optimal exploitation of a renewable capital stock is derived as a feedback rule for a general dynamic optimization problem with a single resource. By a feedback rule is meant that optimal exploitation is given as an explicit function of the capital stock. The value of the simplified approach will be appreciated by all who have tried to determine the separatrix solution numerically and experienced problems. The method described here can be applied to fisheries management, animal stock conservation and conservation of the environment in general. The operationality of the method outlined here is illustrated by two simple examples, one related to fisheries management and one related to pollution control.
LAND USE OPTIMIZATION USING SELF‐ORGANIZING ALGORITHMS
Authors: STRANGE NIELS , MEILBY HENRIK , BOGETOFT PETER
Published: August 2010

ABSTRACT.In many spatial systems the interaction between various regions decreases dramatically with distance. This suggests that local trade‐offs may be more important than global ones in land use planning and that a decentralized, parallel optimization of the individual regions may be an attractive supplement to more centralized optimization approaches. In this paper, we solve a forest planning problem using a series of decentralized approaches. The approaches can be characterized as self‐organizing algorithms and are modeled in the framework of a cellular automaton. We compare our results with those obtained by more centralized approaches, viz. a large sample approach, simulated annealing, and a genetic algorithm. We find that the self‐organizing algorithms generally converge much faster to solutions which are at least as good as those obtained by simulated annealing and the genetic algorithm.
VISUAL DEBUGGING: A WAY OF ANALYZING, UNDERSTANDING AND COMMUNICATING BOTTOM‐UP SIMULATION MODELS IN ECOLOGY
Authors: GRIMM VOLKER
Published: August 2010

ABSTRACT. Bottom‐up simulation models, i.e. individual‐based and spatially explicit models, are powerful new tools in ecology and natural resource management. However, they have to be implemented as more or less complex software and are therefore harder to analyze, understand, and communicate than mathematical models. Particularly critical is the problem of communication, which must be solved if bottom‐up models are to be scientifically credible. As a pragmatic solution to this problem, “visual debugging‘ is proposed, which means equipping simulation programs with a graphical user interface that integrates elements of conventional debugging and graphical representations of the model's state variables. The direct benefit of visual debugging is that the attitude of debugging, i.e. performing controlled experiments, is transferred to the overall development and analysis of the model. This facilitates acknowledging the hierarchical organization of ecological systems and using patterns observed in real systems for developing and validating the models. The benefit for communicating bottom‐up models is that peers can download the executable program from the internet and test and analyze the model on their own. Visual debugging is not meant as an exclusive alternative to other approaches of communicating bottom‐up simulation models, i.e. software libraries or general protocols of model description, but should be combined with these approaches. Overall, visual debugging integrates general principles of software engineering and specific requirements for modeling ecological systems and would therefore contribute to establishing an improved culture of analyzing, understanding, and communicating bottom‐up simulation models.
TIMBER SUPPLY UNDER DEMAND UNCERTAINTY: WELFARE GAINS FROM PERFECT COMPETITION WITH RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS
Authors: GONG PEICHEN , LÖFGREN KARL‐GUSTAF
Published: August 2010

ABSTRACT.This paper presents a noneconometric approach to estimating the short‐run timber supply function based on optimal harvest decisions. Determination of optimal harvest levels and estimation of supply function coefficients are integrated into one step by incorporating a parametric short‐run timber supply function into the harvest decision model. In this manner we convert the original harvest decision model into a new optimization problem with the supply function coefficients functioning as “decision variables.” Optimal solution to the new decision model gives the coefficients of the short‐run supply function and, indirectly, the optimal harvest levels. This approach enables us to develop stochastic models of the timber market that are particularly useful for forest sector analysis involving comparison of alternative institutional regimes or policy proposals and when the timber market is affected by stochastic variables. For demonstration purposes, we apply this method to compare the performances of two timber market regimes (perfect competition and monopoly) under demand uncertainty, using the Swedish data. The results show that the expected timber price is 22 percent lower and the expected annual timber supply is 43 percent higher in the competitive market than in the monopoly market. This confirms the theoretical result that monopoly reduces supply and increases price. The expected social welfare gain from perfect competition over monopoly is about 24 percent.
GLOBAL WARMING AND FISH MIGRATIONS
Authors: HANNESSON RÖGNVALDUR
Published: August 2010

ABSTRACT. . Ocean temperatures are expected to rise over the next decades. This is likely to affect the distribution of fish stocks between the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of different countries. Such changes are likely to be triggered as temperatures rise beyond certain threshold levels, and they are likely to be irregular because temperatures are likely to vary around a rising trend. The paper looks at the case where temperature changes would displace a fish stock out of the EEZ of one country and into the EEZ of another, with a transition period in which the stock is shared. It is examined how this might affect the risk of extinction and degree of overfishing, under different cost scenarios and different assumptions about how countries react to observed changes in the distribution of the stock between their economic zones.
The Sears Island Saga: Law in Search of Geography*
Authors: Platt Rutherford H. , Kendra James M.
Published: August 2010

Abstract: Although the influence of law in shaping human use of land and water has long been recognized, the role of geographic factors in the resolution of legal disputes involving such resources is less appreciated. When the outcome of litigation or administrative procedures depends upon accurate understanding of geographic context and uncertainties, and such understanding is flawed, the legal process may become a faltering, costly exercise in futility. Such has been the case with the 20‐year battle over the fate of Sears Island, a sizable tract of undeveloped coastal Maine at the head of Penobscot Bay. This controversy has reflected competition between economic and environmental goals in coastal zone management, the issue of local versus nonlocal control of resources, and the uneasy interaction of geography and law in the process of environmental impact assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Governing Massachusetts: Uneven Development and Politics in Metropolitan Boston*
Authors: Horan Cynthia , Jonas Andrew E. G.
Published: August 2010

Abstract: This paper analyzes governance and politics in Massachusetts in the 1980s and 1990s. Using a regulationist analysis of the “mode of social regulation” as well as urban regime theory's emphasis on governing coalitions, we show how spatial restructuring has transformed governing coalitions, governance structures, and local politics. Empirically, we note the importance of the Greater Boston area to the Commonwealth's recent economic recovery but point to the lack of regional governance capacity. Political fragmentation and territorial conflict continue to frustrate the development of more coherent governing coalitions and governance structures at the state, regional, and local levels. Theoretically, we stress how conditions internal to local economies contribute to their structural incoherence. This contrasts with the regulationist emphasis on external conditions, including globalization and the failure of national states to manage uneven development.
A Tale of Two Counties: Childhood Lead Poisoning, Industrialization, and Abatement in New England*
Authors: Bailey Adrian J. , Sargent James D. , Blake Megan K.
Published: August 2010

Abstract: We examine spatial variation in childhood lead poisoning within two industrial counties in New England: Worcester County, Massachusetts, and Providence County, Rhode Island. The findings suggest that lead exposure is linked to the differential patterns of urbanization and industrial activity and that a history of abatement can reduce lead exposure. Lead exposure in census tracts with minority neighborhoods varies in complex ways between the counties. We conclude that attention to local context forms an essential component of understanding how public health interventions will continue to affect the geography of childhood lead poisoning.
Gender, the Home‐Work Link, and Space‐Time Patterns of Nonemployment Activities*
Authors: Kwan Mei‐Po
Published: August 2010

Abstract:Building upon recent theoretical work on the reconceptualized homework link, this study identifies out‐of‐home, nonemployment activities as another crucial component of the dynamic dependencies between home and work. Using travel diary data from Columbus, Ohio, and GIS‐based three‐dimensional visualization techniques, I compare the space‐time patterns of these activities for three population subgroups. I examine the complex interrelations among women's daytime fixity constraint, nonemployment activities, household responsibilities, and employment status using a nonrecursive structural equation model. The results show that women encounter higher levels of daytime fixity constraint than men regardless of their employment status. Such constraint is reduced when there are other adults in the household to share some of the domestic responsibilities. Women who face higher levels of fixity constraint are more likely to work part time. An important implication is that redressing the domestic division of labor and gender relations within the household will not only reduce women's fixity constraint, but will also improve their labor market position (especially for women currently working part time). One unexpected result is that full‐time employed women travel longer distances to work than do men even though they encounter higher levels of fixity constraint. This suggests that, contrary to what past studies often assumed, the journey to work may not reflect the magnitude of the fixity constraint women face in their everyday lives.
Politics, Locality, and Economic Restructuring: California's Central Coast Strawberry Industry in the Post–World War II Period*
Authors: Wells Miriam J.
Published: August 2010

Abstract: This article challenges overly economistic, static, and homogenizing representations of contemporary economic restructuring through an in‐depth ethnographic case study of the central coast California strawberry industry in the post–World War II period. It demonstrates that restructuring is much more uneven in its incidence and complex in its motivation than usually portrayed, and that politics and human agency are at its core. Because of the place‐based nature of certain economic activity and the grounded experience of political process, its explication requires a sensitivity to space and place.
Geographic Scale and Grass‐Roots Internationalism: The Liverpool Dock Dispute, 1995–1998*
Authors: Castree Noel
Published: August 2010

Abstract: In the context of ongoing debates over the effects of “globalization” on organized labor and, specifically, recent experiments in labor internationalism, this paper examines the geography of the Liverpool dock dispute, 1995–98. The dispute has rarely been subject to a serious analysis of its causes and trajectory. This is surprising since it was not only the most protracted industrial dispute in recent British history but also the hub of a relatively novel form of transnational labor organizing: namely, a form of grass‐roots internationalism organized largely outside the formal apparatuses of national and international unionism. In the paper I focus on the nature and dynamics of this “grass‐roots internationalism” with a view to making two claims that have a wider thematic and theoretical relevance to the study of labor geographies. First, contrary to an emerging new orthodoxy in labor geography (and labor studies more generally), the Liverpool case in fact suggests that the necessity for labor to “up‐scale” solidarity and struggle in the 1990s is much overstated. Second, the Liverpool case suggests that international labor organizing is only efficacious when considered in relation to two scales of struggle often thought increasingly irrelevant or ineffectual in a globalizing world: the local and the national. Thus, while those few analysts who have cited the Liverpool dispute, basing their assessments on secondhand knowledge, have held the dockers up as exemplars of a new form of labor internationalism, in this paper I suggest the need for a more complex and contingent appreciation of the multiscalar dynamics of labor struggles. In short, we have not yet reached the stage, even in a globalizing world, where labor's “spatial fixes” must be preeminently supranational.
Why Do National Labor Market Practices Continue to Diverge in the Global Economy? The “Missing Link” of Investment Rules*
Authors: Christopherson Susan
Published: August 2010

Abstract: How are we to understand what appear to be persistent differences in national economic practices? One way is through an analysis of the politically constructed “rules” that have been developed to govern markets in the major industrialized economies. Nationally based institutions and the power and agency they construct have a profound influence on private‐sector and state actors. This power can be put into play outside as well as inside territorial boundaries. In this article, I expand the theoretical connections between market governance institutions and labor market practices by (1) examining how governance regimes influence the content and degree of labor flexibility and (2) analyzing the U.S. corporate governance regime as a set of institutions that parallels those of the more “coordinated” economies. If corporate governance is taken as central to explaining differences in the flexibility of labor markets, then U.S. practices can be explained more coherently. These practices are not simply a result of the absence of strong labor institutions but derive from the incentives that influence firms in the U.S. corporate governance regime.
The Disappearance of Race in Mortgage Lending*
Authors: Wyly Elvin K. , Holloway Steven R.
Published: August 2010

Abstract: In the past 25 years, housing researchers, governmental regulators, industry advocates, and community activists have all relied on a unified analytical infrastructure that was developed in the 1970s to monitor racial and geographic inequalities in U.S. housing markets. Since the mid‐1990s, however, several developments in the housing finance sector have undermined a key element of this system: data collected under the auspices of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975. The second‐largest racial‐ethnic group among mortgage loan applicants is now officially designated as “information not provided.” In this article, we analyze the causes and geography of this disappearance and its consequences for civil rights enforcement, academic research on redlining and discrimination, and community activism. Our analysis is simultaneously a cautionary narrative of the steady erosion of a valuable public data system and a strategic intervention intended to salvage the empirical contributions of the data for interdisciplinary research, community right‐to‐know purposes, and public policy development. Using Atlanta, Georgia, as a case study, we marshal a suite of multivariate techniques to disentangle the geographic, individual, and institutional factors responsible for the rise in unreported applications. We also devise a simple method to estimate the “true” racial and ethnic composition of the pool of unknown applicants. The contributions of this endeavor are mediated by the political and epistemological problems of racialization and categorical reification.
The Wealth of Nations at the Turn of the Millennium: A Classification System Based on the International Division of Labor*
Authors: Hoeschele Wolfgang
Published: August 2010

Abstract: Simple dichotomies, such as First World–Third World, developed–developing countries, and north–south, are no longer adequate for understanding the complex economic geography of the world. Even the division into core, semi‐periphery, and periphery groups diverse economies into an excessively limited number of categories. It is time to develop a new scheme that better classifies the countries of the world into coherent groups. This article constructs a new classification based on the international division of labor, using three fundamental dimensions. The first dimension is the success of the industrial and services economy in providing employment to the people within a country. The second is the export orientation of a country, concentrating either on natural‐resource‐intensive products (e.g., agricultural produce, food and beverages, minerals and metals) or on core industrial manufactures (from textiles to computers). The third is the presence of control functions in the world economy: countries that include the headquarters of major firms and are the source regions of major flows of foreign direct investments. The combination of these three dimensions leads to the creation of eight basic categories. I introduce a terminology that combines these basic categories into larger groups, depending on the context. This new conceptual scheme should facilitate a more informed analysis of world economic, political, social, and environmental affairs.
The Strategic Localization of Transnational Retailers: The Case of Samsung‐Tesco in South Korea
Authors: Coe Neil M. , Lee Yong‐Sook
Published: August 2010

Abstract: This article contributes to the small but growing geographic literature on the internationalization of retailing by exploring the strategic localization of transnational retailers. While it has long been recognized that firms in many different sectors localize their activities to meet the requirements of different national and local markets, the imperative is particularly strong for retail transnational corporations (TNCs) because of the extremely high territorial embeddedness of their activities. This embeddedness can be seen through the ways in which retailers seek to establish and maintain extensive store networks, adapt their offerings to various cultures of consumption, and manage the proliferation of connections to the local supply base. We illustrate these conceptual arguments through a case study of the Samsung‐Tesco joint venture in South Korea, profiling three particular aspects of Samsung‐Tesco's strategic localization: the localization of products, the localization of sourcing, and the localization of staffing and strategic decision making. In conclusion, we argue that the strategic localization of transnational retailers needs to be conceptualized as a dynamic that evolves over time after initial inward investment and that localization should be seen as a two‐way dynamic that has the potential to have a wider impact on the parent corporation.
Land‐Cover and Land‐Use Change in the Brazilian Amazon: Smallholders, Ranchers, and Frontier Stratification
Authors: Aldrich Stephen P. , Walker Robert T. , Arima Eugenio Y. , Caldas Marcellus M. , Browder John O. , Perz Stephen
Published: August 2010

Abstract: Tropical deforestation is a significant driver of global environmental change, given its impacts on the carbon cycle and biodiversity. Loss of the Amazon forest, the focus of this article, is of particular concern because of the size and the rapid rate at which the forest is being converted to agricultural use. In this article, we identify what has been the most important driver of deforestation in a specific colonization frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. To this end, we consider (1) the land‐use dynamics of smallholder households, (2) the formation of pasture by large‐scale ranchers, and (3) structural processes of land aggregation by ranchers. Much has been written about relations between smallholders and ranchers in the Brazilian Amazon, particularly those involving conflict over land, and this article explicates the implications of such social processes for land cover. Toward this end, we draw on panel data (1996–2002) and satellite imagery (1986–1999) to show the deforestation that is attributable to small‐ and largeholders, and the deforestation that is attributable to aggregations of property arising from a process that we refer to as frontier stratification. Evidently, most of the recent deforestation in the study area has resulted from the household processes of smallholders, not from conversions to pasture pursuant to the appropriations of smallholders' property by well‐capitalized ranchers or speculators.
“Spaces of Hope”? Fatalism, Trade Unionism, and the Uneven Geography of Capital in White Goods Manufacturing
Authors: Lambert Rob , Gillan Michael
Published: August 2010

Abstract: By engaging the “politics of scale,” the discourse of labor geography challenges the fatalism and consequent passivity that pervades much of the labor movement when it is confronted by corporate restructuring. An optimistic view of agency is central to this theoretical intervention. On the basis of empirical research on workers' responses to a transnational corporation's restructuring of a large refrigerator factory in rural Australia, this article highlights contradictory reactions to restructuring, thereby questioning the conception of agency that is at the heart of the labor geography project. Our data suggest a need to refine a theory that tends toward voluntarism in stressing workers' autonomy by developing a more complex, contradictory, and embedded conception. The latter reveals the unpredictable, dynamic, and contested character of agency in which the strategic response of unionism is a critical variable. The results reveal the power of a new discourse on scale in transforming fatalism. Although this initiative in Australia is now in the first phase of evolving a new institutional expression of this discourse, the data reveal how the union's policy decision to rescale and network globally within the corporation has empowered those who are determined to act, thereby undermining the passivity and fatalism of the majority. This transformation of social consciousness is a crucial trigger in the shift toward globally networked forms of unionism. To date, the labor geography literature has not adequately addressed the relationship between discourse, consciousness, and action. The article concludes that this new direction may have a wider significance in the global dynamic between corporations and civil society and may point to a more systematic, long‐term change in the geographic scale of unionism.