bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Supply chain transformation at UScellular
Authors: Augustine Amy , Docter Lucille , Roberts Edna , Poirier Ryan , Waitz Erin
Published: July 2024

Change is never easy, and leadership must champion the change. When UScellular made the decision to put more focus on its network supply chain operations, the company started with identifying the leadership team that would drive the organisational transformation. This piece of the puzzle was critical because it would be the foundation of the work needed to mature our network supply chain. Leaders would need to encourage collaboration, develop talent and work across organisational boundaries. The new UScellular network supply chain needed change champions. These leaders needed to be able to work together seamlessly, build trust and have strategic thinking to help us set priorities and navigate to our future. The leaders needed to engage their teams to start driving the changes. It was part of the strategy to be very deliberate on who was hired for each of the leadership roles and what function they would lead. Once the leadership team was in place, we discussed how important change management was going to be for us to be successful as we navigated not only the change to our organisation but to our partners and stakeholders. We discussed how we would approach hiring, process creation and how we were going to get there. We had open communication with our teams and partners and knew that we may not get everything right the first time. But we believed in the strategy, and we would learn and improve along the way. The team drove a culture of inclusiveness, accountability and openness. When discussing how to handle our change management plans, we made sure to address five key steps: 1) prepare the organisation for change; 2) vision and plan for change; 3) implement the changes; 4) embed changes within team culture and practices; and 5) review progress and analyse results. These five steps were instrumental in setting the team up for success in the transformation. Leaders deliberately kept in mind how to care for the team and how they might be feeling during different stages of this transformation. Another key piece for network supply chain transformation was that senior UScellular leadership was very supportive of what we were trying to accomplish. They understood that this was going to be a journey that we needed to manage from both a people perspective and a process perspective, with impact on both internal and external partners. Senior leaders recognised the need for additional personnel for the organisational transformation to be successful. They gave the team the support needed to be successful in driving a more mature supply chain. In conclusion, for this transformation to be successful, we addressed leadership by hiring the right associates for the right roles and focusing on change management. We were open and honest with the larger team and partners that we would have our struggles but would work together to find common ground and solutions that would drive real progress. Our progress shows how we were able to use change management practices effectively to drive this progress.
Development of CRE data systems : A case study for heterogeneous property portfolios
Authors: Glatte Thomas
Published: July 2024

Corporate real estate management (CREM) has evolved over the past few years, adjusting to the requirements of globalisation. The requirements for the management of corporate real estate (CRE) vary from company to company according to the real estate portfolio to be managed, the asset classes involved, their regional distribution, the scope of management and the level of vertical integration of the CREM organisation. This also dictates the type and scope of real estate management and the management systems to be used. Just as the objectives of CREM in the company must be derived from the objectives of the core business, real estate management and data systems must be derived from the CREM objectives. These will change along with the level of maturity of the CREM organisation. The CRE manager should therefore first determine the status quo of their situation in the company and then define immediate short-term targets and a long-term vision. Based on this, it is advisable to develop the system landscape incrementally. In designing the system, the focus must first be on the required output. This is the basis for the definition of the input variables. It is strongly recommended, however, to keep the number of input variables to be maintained small so that they can be kept up to date with reasonable effort. As a result, this paper first emphasises the specifics of CRE in contrast to the traditional real estate industry. Thereafter, it demonstrates the progress of the step-wise development of the CREM system over a period of almost 20 years. A long-term case study shows the alignment of the development of the management system alongside the development of the CRE organisation, commencing with the challenges of data collection and maintenance, the subsequent setting up of a strategic property database, the integration of rather tactical tasks, up to the ultimate goal of establishing an integrated real estate management system for an internationally operating corporation with a complex and heterogeneous industrial real estate portfolio.
Uses and implications of virtual data room features for corporate real estate due diligence
Authors: Timson Kevin
Published: July 2024

Virtual data rooms (VDRs) can significantly improve the due diligence process for sellers and acquirers of corporate real estate. A seller can easily and confidentially collect and organise sensitive property documents located anywhere in the seller's organisation into a central online repository accessible to acquirers around the world. Such online access brings in more interested acquirers to review a property or portfolio because acquirers initially can rely less on site visits and analyse more property documents in less time. Sellers become more willing to share confidential documents due to the significant security tools that VDRs provide. Ultimately, the analysis facilitated by virtual data rooms helps acquirers by providing more data to clarify and validate key deal components of real property transactions, as expressed in the representations and warranties of a purchase agreement, title policies and property environmental reports.
The intersection of compliance and diversity: The interconnectedness of these two disciplines and the implications for the compliance profession
Authors: Stinson-Dacruz Tina
Published: July 2024

This paper makes the argument that the disciplines of compliance and diversity not only share commonalities, but that they are also essential components in a firm’s overall ethical framework. Both have a close connection to the culture of an organisation and share a direct association with a firm’s desire to do the right thing. The demographics of the financial industry and the compliance profession are discussed, along with an illustration of the challenge of homogeneity. Firms need a diversity of viewpoints to foster innovative and creative ideas and solutions to problems, and in order to guard against the negative effects of groupthink. The concept of diversity of thought offers a solution. Diversity of thought is accomplished by hiring a diverse staff, representing the many permutations of diversity. Once a diverse team is assembled, the necessity of building trust among managers and direct reports is critical to creating an engaged workforce and encourage a culture where employees feel empowered to report unethical behaviours. Specific behaviours managers can engage in to foster trust are offered for consideration along with the necessity of reshaping the compliance profession to reflect the changes in the larger population. Finally, a series of action items compliance professionals can engage in is presented, including a focus on building a diverse compliance team as an addition to the pillars of an effective compliance programme.
Airport planning in free market regimes
Authors: Werson Mick , Burghouwt Guillaume
Published: July 2024

The ongoing liberalisation of air transport and increasing commercialisation of the airport industry results in a more competitive environment and growing uncertainty with regard to what kind and size of airport facilities are required and when. This means an increased risk of capacity mismatches and destruction of economic value. At the same time, the changing airport ownership models require maximal value creation while airlines expect airport efficiency. Due to changing air transport and airport market regimes, physical planning of airports must be (more) adaptive. In unpredictable commercial markets, company plans must also be proactive and aimed at value creation. The authors conclude that an integrated approach between physical planning and strategic and business planning is practically non-existent. They illustrate strong interdependencies between separate planning disciplines and propose a more integrated, value-based planning approach, which addresses economic choices embedded in master planning.
Bridging the performance gap: Understanding predicted and actual building operational energy
Authors: Lewry Andy
Published: July 2024

Buildings rarely perform as well as their designers predict — energy consumption can be as much as double what was expected, so annual energy costs can also be doubled. This difference has become known as the ‘performance gap’; in some cases it is due to more intensive or extended occupancy, but often the major cause is that the building services are operated inefficiently and not as intended by the designers. The ‘performance gap’ is difficult to quantify because the performance ratings obtained from energy certificates at design stage and in use are, amazingly, not directly comparable. The two seemingly irreconcilable indicators of performance available are energy performance certificates, (EPCs), which provide a theoretical assessment of their asset but under standardised ‘driving conditions’, and operational ratings, which are based on energy bills and give no indication of how much lower those bills could be. The operational rating is nearly always higher due to non-standard hours of operation, occupancy patterns and unregulated loads, such as IT and office equipment. To truly understand how a building uses energy it is necessary to know something about the building itself and about how it is used; this requires both an asset rating and an operational energy rating. Bridging the Performance Gap — Understanding Predicted and Actual Building Operational Energy looks at ways of bringing the two assessments together. The UK Government's Green Deal assessment process (GD-SBEM) provides, for the first time, a tool to reconcile these pieces of information, which ties in with the requirements of the UK Government's ‘Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme’ (ESOS).1 The Green Deal (GD) tool can also be used to identify energy savings and to produce the data to underpin any business case for investment in energy efficiency measures.
Understanding the effects of delay propagation on air carrier operations: A case study of network versus point-to-point carriers
Authors: Kondo Akira
Published: July 2024

The National Airspace System (NAS) forms a network of airports that depend on each other for on-time performance. In a sequence of flights operated by the same tail-numbered aircraft, delays at one airport are likely to accumulate and have ripple effects on others downstream. Propagated delays are stochastic and have multiple causes which, in turn, make it difficult for airlines to build a reliable and robust schedule. This paper examines propagated delays in terms of a root delay in flight sequences. It compares propagated delays between hub and point-to-point airports as well as between legacy and low-cost carriers. This study shows that the point-to-point carrier under investigation propagates more delays than the legacy carrier that operates a network.
Water damage and mould growth in buildings : Causes, detection, identification, remediation and health implications
Authors: Singh Jagjit
Published: July 2024

This paper is about water damage in buildings and the resulting mould infestation, its causes, detection, identification, remediation and health Implications. The author believes based on science, practical experience and successful case studies over the last 37 years that by proper understanding of the causes, much misdiagnosis, misidentification and mistreatment can be avoided, and correct testing, identification and enumeration of the moulds is the vital key to successful remediation measures. All moulds are not equally destructive, toxic or pathogenic. It is important to determine the type and extent of both visible and non-visible mould and hidden moulds in floor voids, wall voids and other confined spaces.
ISO 20022: Understanding the scale of change
Authors: Schmidt Isabel
Published: July 2024

Payments are set to undergo phenomenal change. The industry-wide move from existing payment messaging formats to ISO 20022 incorporates cross-border, high-value payments/wire transfers and will touch the payment life cycle end to end. As the implementation deadlines draw nearer, the implications for banks are more wide-reaching and involved than many have yet to fully comprehend. This paper examines what is changing, what banks will need to consider and the opportunities that are being presented.
MiFID II, US federal securities laws and investment research: The compliance challenge
Authors: Corey Ethan D.
Published: July 2024

MiFID II’s restrictions governing the acquisition of third party research conflict in several key aspects with the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) regulation of consumers and producers of investment research. The SEC’s staff issued three ‘no-action’ letters intended to enable buy-side and sell-side firms to comply with MiFID II’s restrictions without running afoul of US federal securities laws. While the letters provide more certainty, drafting ambiguities in the letters have caused some compliance challenges to remain. In addition, the limited scope of the relief provided by the no-action letters means that different rules may apply to US buy-side and sell-side intermediaries based solely upon whether they are dealing with a party subject to MiFID II or not.
How to develop personalised self-care protocols for use during a crisis
Authors: Mitchell Vali J. Hawkins
Published: July 2024

Self-care is a tool that helps employees function effectively during normal work conditions and — especially — during crisis situations and business interruptions. This paper will further define self-care, its relevance to business continuity and emergency management, and the benefits of including it as a part of formal training and pre- or post-intervention strategies. Finally, it provides best practice guidance on how to implement self-care protocols, including examples of current practice.
Applying a governance framework to an evolving outsourcing contract of public sector real estate management
Authors: Gill Tony
Published: July 2024

As real estate outsourcing becomes more entrenched in the operating procedures of large enterprise, the governance of large outsourcing contracts takes on greater importance. Outsourcing governance can become the key to fortifying linkages between client and service provider, ensuring best practices are continually integrated and delivery of core services is systematised in a way that maximises operational efficiency. This paper explores the evolving nature of outsourcing of public sector real estate management through anecdotes gleaned from a contract between a large public service entity and a global outsourcing provider.
Switching off TV, turning on touchpoints: New ways to communicate in a new world
Authors: Bird Jon
Published: July 2024

With the proliferation of media platforms and the general decline of television viewership, marketers must reallocate investments into high-impact touchpoints. This paper explores how brands can shift spending to new creative vehicles while still optimising programmes with proven success.
Multilateral interchange fees: Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
Authors: Krueger Malte
Published: July 2024

When it comes to multilateral interchange fees (MIFs), the regulatory authorities are demonstrably inconsistent. At the same time as (erroneously) treating them like conventional cartel prices, they have also mandated an upper ceiling for them — effectively legitimising the concept. As this paper demonstrates, classifying MIFs with standard cartel pricing is a categorical error. A capped MIF is simply one ingredient of a well-functioning card payment system. Indeed, without MIFs, payments markets suffer free-rider problems and high transaction costs. To illustrate how MIFs curtail the tendency of prices to move upward, the paper examines the German ATM system before 2011. Finally, the paper argues that the current regulatory approach may lead to the demise of those European card schemes that are currently under pressure from MasterCard and Visa.
Regulations: Burden or insurance?
Authors: Romhanyi Julia B.
Published: July 2024

Effective regulation is in the interest of banks — the implemented regulatory requirements make sure the sector becomes more resilient against future financial shocks and makes the banking system safer. Increasing regulatory requirements put pressure on the financial sector, in terms of human resources, IT (information technology) investments and overall implementation costs. Banks need to focus on efficiency, optimising costs and processes, while leveraging on automation and digitisation. The cost of regulation — both in terms of implementation and monitoring — can be allocated with different methodologies to the provided services and products. The aim of financial participants is to offer these services and products under a proper pricing structure where the overall customer offering remains competitive and, most importantly, sustainable in the long term. The CSDR Penalty Regime will be one of the key challenges of the post-trade infrastructure, as it is still not known how service providers and the entire value chain will be able to address the administrative, technological and financial implications. It is critical to address the main inefficiencies before the settlement discipline regime comes into effect, in order to avoid expected high penalty charges. Keeping a strict regulatory regime is important to lower the risk profile of the banking industry, the compliance of which shall be part of the ‘business as usual’ daily banking activities, ensuring the safety of clients’ assets at all times, even under difficult financial periods.
So you want to be a data-driven advancement shop?
Authors: Perry Matthew
Published: July 2024

The modern alumni and development organisation is awash with data. On a daily basis, our digital feeds are filled with content that inspires us with analytics and data visualisations for higher education advancement. Advancement executives are embracing their growing reliance on data, seeing it as a strategic tool and openly advocating the need for their organisations to be 'data driven' yet, sadly, the rhetoric does not always translate to the expected strategic value. Executives can be left feeling underwhelmed by their organisation's utilisation of data and advanced analytics. Perhaps, our ability to fully embrace sophisticated analytics is hampered by a sometimes overlooked, more fundamental advancement function' systems and data management. This paper has no 'wow factor'. No high-end analytics, no predictive models and no impressive data visualisations. Instead, it aims to help establish and/or improve the data and systems function within an advancement organisation. The paper presents some practical steps that are beginning to see a data culture seed and flourish in the Division of Alumni and Development at the University of Sydney. It shines a spotlight on some of the issues, processes, frameworks and management artefacts that may assist an organisation to incrementally build their data-driven culture.
An insight into customers’ product return intentions
Authors: Maity Devdeep
Published: July 2024

Every year, the global retail industry loses billions of dollars due to product returns. Despite this, very little of the marketing literature examines customers’ intentions to return and the associated implications. The present study captures, analyses and interprets a managerially relevant variable, namely product return intentions, and helps retail store managers, retail analysts and marketing managers understand the decision journey behind consumer product returns. Specifically, the study looks at the relationship between the consumer’s cognitive dissonance after purchase and product return intentions in the context of both lenient and strict return policies. The study also looks at the ill effects of such return intentions in terms of negative word-of-mouth feedback about the retailer. The results suggest that cognitive dissonance after purchase positively influences product return intentions, which in turn positively influences negative word-of-mouth intentions; however, the relationship remains unaffected in strict and lenient return policy situations. Besides providing crucial insights into the complex consumer sentiments associated with seemingly simple product returns, the research questions the previously held notion of retailers and store managers controlling product returns by imposing strict return policies—a finding of paramount importance to business.
Shaping employee experience through always-on space optimisation
Authors: Josipovic Tony
Published: July 2024

Today’s office is only one piece in a complex workplace puzzle, where fluidity and flexibility reign. While it remains an important and integral part of the workplace ecosystem, the office needs to be actively managed to support an engaged workforce, drive operational efficiency and minimise impact to the environment. To meet this radically evolving set of sometimes competing demands, occupancy management and planning models, tools and activities must evolve to provide always-on insights, analysis and optimisation.
Spinning straw into gold: The fairy tale of disaster cost recovery
Authors: Martinet Michael
Published: July 2024

Globally, disasters appear to be growing in frequency, intensity and cost. While national governments provide varying levels of assistance to affected populations and regions, are local agencies doing what they can to prepare for the next disaster? This article discusses what can be done, sometimes at minimal cost, to be better prepared to recover economically from the next disaster.
Why COVID-19 disruptions to shopping behaviours underscore the need for a coordinated, cross-functional conversion rate optimisation strategy
Authors: Bond Sarah
Published: July 2024

As consumers shifted consumption patterns to online avenues in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses increasingly looked for ways to grab their attention and convert traffic into sales and leads. This paper analyses how studying website visitor behaviour through the practice of conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and its associated tools allows teams to find opportunities to optimise user experience to grow conversions. Although traditionally an initiative led by marketing teams, the practice of CRO can help teams from user experience, sales, customer service, product and development improve their understanding of target audiences and how to connect with them online.
Opening the Black Box of a competitive customer experience strategy
Authors: Hinnenberg Marc , Löfstedt Nina
Published: July 2024

Strong legacy systems, a silo development approach, difficulties in managing both internal and external end-to-end data together with changes in customer behaviour has made it even more difficult to meet customer expectations and manage customer relationships in the digital frenzy of today. Customer experience (CX) seems to be the remedy to the challenges presented in the ever-changing omnichannel environments within which financial institutions are struggling. However many companies, especially in the financial sector, lack a clear strategy for their CX. The situation has developed into something that we call the Black Box of customer experience, where the responsibility for managing the customer relationship has been outsourced from the corporation even as far as to the customers themselves. This paper presents some views and discusses how organisations can define a clear vision and strategy for turning their CX Black Box into a competitive advantage. Our ambition has been to present a hands on approach to help companies exceed customer expectations in chosen touchpoints throughout the customer journey. The paper is divided into four themes: (1) discussing the challenges of most financial institutions on the matter, (2) introducing the Black Box of customer experience approach, (3) creating a common understanding and framework for customer experience with essential performance indicators and metrics, and finally, (4) discussing the organisational aspects and management support to secure a fertile ground for growth.
A practical approach to culture and conduct risk management
Authors: Ross James
Published: July 2024

The regulation and supervision of individual conduct and group culture is under ongoing global regulatory scrutiny. There is, however, little guidance for institutions, consistency of approach across the globe and no global framework for managing culture and conduct risk, unlike the Basel accord on prudential regulation. A globally consistent approach is both desirable and achievable by updating the global approach to operational risk, with models of conduct risk which exists in aviation, construction and healthcare, the ‘just Culture’ model and behavioural science. Insights from behavioural science propose that the root causes of Culture and Conduct failure are as follows: (i) conformity to a bad leader, (ii) conformity to a bad group, (iii) sub-optimal group and individual thinking, (iv) bystander apathy and diffusion of responsibility, (v) operant conditioning, (vi) unaligned interests between principle and agent and (vii) too much or too little stress. This paper concludes with a proposed model of Culture and Conduct risk management.
Distributed ledger technology experiments in retail payments: Evidence from Turkey
Authors: Çağlayan Gökhan , Öz Bilgehan Kürşad , Özer Aleaddin , Şener Emrah
Published: July 2024

A growing number of central banks are exploring the potential introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and authorities are conducting distributed ledger technology (DLT) proof-of-concept experiments and pilot programmes. While these pilot projects have confirmed the feasibility of using DLT platforms for large-value wholesale payments, it is not yet clear whether these platforms will provide major advantages in terms of speed and scalability for small-value/large-volume retail payments. In Turkey, the existing instant payment system has already demonstrated that it can settle as many as 1,980 transactions per second (TPS) and 11.5 million transactions per day, across its 25 participant institutions. Moreover, simulations in test conditions suggest that it has the potential to deliver thousands of transactions per second, and that it is scalable to hundreds of participant institutions. Any retail payment system built on a DLT platform must therefore, at the very least, perform at a comparable level. Using actual retail payment data from the day on which the peak TPS was observed, this paper describes a novel experimental investigation into the TPS and scalability performance of two open source DLT platforms (Hyperledger Fabric and Quorum) and Turkey’s instant payment system for retail payments, with the aim of providing valuable insights for the design of alternatives for future CBDC launches. The study presents several empirical findings. First, it demonstrates that the speed and scalability of selected DLT platforms are not yet mature enough to establish an enterprise retail payment solution. Secondly, the experimental design enables us to determine precisely which DLT platform is facing a performance and capacity bottleneck and under what circumstances. One of the most critical findings is that platforms with a modular architecture and more efficient transaction life cycle perform relatively better, although still lack the requirements for achieving reliable and efficient retail payments. Lastly, we suggest that it could be worth developing an integrated approach in which the central instant payment system and DLT-based digital currency solution communicate via a bridge platform.
Complaining with emojis: Some conceptual and analytical aspects
Authors: Moussa Salim
Published: July 2024

Building on existing taxonomies of consumer complaint behaviour, this paper categorises people who post their complaints to organisations’ official social media sites as ‘social irates’. This paper proposes two methodologies for analysing emoji-based complaints. The first is an emoji-based metric that is easy for both marketing managers and researchers to implement and interpret. The second methodology adopts a network approach for understanding and representing the use of emojis by dissatisfied consumers. By demonstrating that these emojis contain valuable data, the proposed methodologies offer insight into complaining consumers’ thoughts and feelings. The emoji-based metric and the network approach could be extremely helpful for researchers and marketing analytics professionals seeking to understand what complaining consumers are trying to communicate when using these little digital icons.
In Pasteur’s own hand: The creation of a digital repository
Authors: Greene Mira , Marlin Robert O
Published: July 2024

The Moody Medical Library’s Truman G. Blocker, Jr History of Medicine Collections (Blocker Collections) at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, created a digital repository of carefully selected material from the private library of Louis Pasteur (1822–1895). This project was completed in an effort to dramatically improve user awareness and access to the personal and academic thoughts of one of the world’s most celebrated scientists. The Pasteur Collection held at the Blocker Collections contains books, offprints, prints, manuscripts and unpublished handwritten letters by Pasteur, which he maintained in his personal library. The digitised images feature the original document, the French transcription of the handwritten documents and notes, as well as the English translation of the letters and are available for viewing, downloading, and printing from both the Moody Medical Library and the Texas Digital Library websites. This project was funded in whole or part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, under Contract No. HHSN-276-2011-00007-C with the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library. This paper will focus on the award application process, in-house workflows, outsourcing of translation and transcription and digital repository creation.
Fostering effective collaboration between faculty and marketing staff for institutional success
Authors: Micu Anca C.
Published: July 2024

Faculty and staff collaboration is increasingly important for higher education institutional success. Creating an environment of cooperation and developing faculty–staff cross-silo dialogue can be done with mission-driven, clearly communicated and measurable strategic goals, where staff have a clear vertical structure of responsibilities and perceive faculty being incentivised to work with them, and faculty have a thorough understanding of the beneficial outcomes of their collaboration with staff. As marketing efforts increasingly take centre stage and marketing staff grow in numbers, a clear and well-communicated structure, with regular meetings, a good two-way flow of information and a culture that fosters collaboration between faculty and staff may prove invaluable in building brand awareness and driving results.
The unified log: What it is and how it is changing marketing analytics
Authors: Sassoon Yali
Published: July 2024

Marketers are used to being told that the latest innovation in technology will transform the way that marketing analytics, and marketing in general, are performed. One development in data technology, however, that has not been widely reported or discussed in marketing circles, is the unified log. This is a new approach to building a company-wide data architecture, one that was developed in parallel with LinkedIn1 and Twitter,2 and has since started to gain widespread traction.3 Unfortunately it has gathered rather less attention outside engineering circles, as the unified log has the potential to be an enormous enabler of more sophisticated marketing analytics. This paper provides an overview of what the unified log is and how it will act as a platform to enable more sophisticated marketing analytics.
The Payment Services Directive: Why the European payments industry needs to prepare for significant implementation challenges
Authors: Wandhöfer Ruth
Published: July 2024

As part of the European Commission's Lisbon Agenda, efforts to support financial market integration in the European Union have reached another milestone with the adoption of the Payments Services Directive (PSD, 2007/64/EC) in December 2007. The PSD, designed to support the banking industry's self-regulatory initiative of the single euro payments area (SEPA), constitutes a comprehensive and detailed set of conduct of business rules in the area of payment service provision. Furthermore, the PSD introduces a new category of non-bank payment service providers in order to inject more competition into the European payments market. Despite the European Commission's efforts to improve the regulatory environment within the framework of its Better Regulation Policy, the PSD unfortunately falls short of meeting Better Regulation standards. The degree of detail and complexity of the provisions creates significant regulatory challenges, which need to be carefully assessed by all existing and future players and regulators in the European payments market. In advance of member state transposition of PSD provisions into national law, this paper attempts an initial critical analysis, providing guidance on content, interpretation and implementation concerns. The understanding of the PSD is crucial in relation to the rules on harmonisation of refund rights and unique identifier primacy, which constitute the legal basis for the pan-European implementation of SEPA Credit Transfers and direct debits. It must be kept in mind, however, that, beyond SEPA all existing electronic payment products in all EU member state currencies are equally affected, thus requiring every payment service provider in Europe to ensure compliance.
A value-at-risk approach to commercial real estate portfolio stress testing at US community banks
Authors: Hall John , Kern David , Yeager Timothy , King Tom , Lee Kevin
Published: July 2024

The December 2006 federal regulatory guidance on commercial real estate (CRE) requires banks with significant concentrations in CRE lending to employ appropriate risk-management techniques to measure and manage the risk. Using vector autoregression techniques on historical CRE foreclosure rates, the authors develop a value-at-risk CRE portfolio stress-test methodology. They document the build-up of CRE concentrations in bank loan portfolios and explain how banks can use a spreadsheet-based simulation methodology to measure their portfolio risk across the entire loan portfolio.
The joy of not being sold anything: Shopping through the eyes of the Millennial shopper
Authors: Kraemer Zachary
Published: July 2024

Millennials have grown up in a world of choice and present an entirely new challenge to brands. While marketers scramble to work across a myriad of touchpoints, the author suggests a simpler framework. Brand Experience and Purchase Fulfillment are the new currencies for shoppers who are interested in the meaning behind brands and expect instant access to products.
Project portfolio management at Northwestern University Libraries: Developing an innovative solution to managing project life cycles
Authors: Caizzi Carolyn , Young Jennifer B. , Zellner Dan
Published: July 2024

The Northwestern University Libraries Repository and Digital Curation (RDC) department is tasked with digitising and creating digital collections from the materials managed by the Libraries’ curators. The previous process for the intake and management of these projects created a situation of feast or famine regarding project work that was ready and vetted for staff to begin. With the development of a new process, the RDC points process, the department is now better positioned to manage its portfolio of projects. This paper provides details concerning the problem and the methods used to develop a new process to address it. The paper outlines the new process of project and proposal intake, determination of capacity (available staff work hours), time-tracking and scheduling. The paper also cites the sources that inspired the RDC points process and aims to serve the same purpose for others faced with similar project portfolio management challenges.
Changes in Electronic Money Regulations: For better or worse
Authors: Patel Hinal , Armstrong Craig
Published: July 2024

This paper considers the impact of the Electronic Money Directive and the Payment Services Directive on e-money schemes and the issues that need to be addressed to assist the expansion of the e-money market.
What makes for successful micropayments products and business models?
Authors: Mcgrath James
Published: July 2024

Small payments of less than US$5 have resisted the wave of electronification that has swept consumer payments in recent years. A number of innovations (both new technologies and new ways of doing business), however, have done much to make such electronic 'micropayments' less expensive and more convenient. Now, having proved themselves in several online markets, micropayments are poised to make inroads at the physical point of sale. This paper looks at some of the success stories (and failures), both in the US and abroad, to identify possible conditions for success and to gauge the outlook for the future. It finds that industry structure, the coordination of standards, and customer preferences and experiences have all influenced the development of these products. While different markets around the world have supported different types of solutions, the successful products have delivered clear utility to the consumer, along with compelling economics for the different parties in the value chain. With critical mass in sight, the future looks promising.
Importance of staff engagement in a post-COVID-19 world
Authors: Tsang Michael
Published: July 2024

Healthcare workers are the backbone of any medical system and are vital to healthcare delivery and the patient experience. Although more than two years removed from the height of COVID-19, the reverberation set in motion will be felt for years, possibly decades, to come. The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on healthcare teams who have been on the front lines of the pandemic, with many suffering from stress, trauma, burnout and increased behavioural health challenges. Systems have negotiated staffing shortages and the mental health of their workforce and have also redefined diversity. A 2021 Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that nearly 30 per cent of healthcare workers are considering leaving their profession altogether, and nearly 60 per cent reported adverse effects of their work on their mental health during the pandemic. Central to these struggles is the complex task of re-engaging a workforce that has largely been fragmented and isolated and recovering personally and professionally from the most devastating pandemic since 1918. It is incumbent on all healthcare leaders to prioritise staff engagement to ensure that a gap in healthcare delivery is not experienced. There are practical ways to accomplish this, most of which are initiated by leadership being available and prompt in their interactions with staff.
Socio-cultural patterns embedded into the built form of Qatari houses: Regenerating architectural identity in Qatar
Authors: Al-Mohannadi Asmaa Saleh , Furlan Raffaello
Published: July 2024

This research paper investigates the spatial form of traditional and modern Qatari houses and embedded socio-cultural patterns which have influenced the development of housing in Qatar over the past decades. The methodology for the investigation of socio-cultural patterns embedded into traditional and modern houses is based on space syntax supported by visualisation techniques. The findings reveal that specific requirements such as: 1) privacy; 2) gender segregation; and 3) hospitality are determining the spatial form of both vernacular and modern housing. In turn, the findings contribute towards the development of architectural identity, including social sustainability, for the urban regeneration of the built environment in Qatar.
Mining online comments to understand customer satisfaction with hotel technologies: A comparison of hotels in Beijing and Washington, DC
Authors: Zheng Minyi , Chen Mccain Shiang-Lih , Lolli Jeffrey C. , Ting Ping-Ho
Published: July 2024

For hotel customers, satisfaction with amenities has long been a key factor in the stay experience. Using content analysis from 2,100 TripAdvisor reviews of hotels in Washington, DC, USA and Beijing, China, this study evaluates how various categories of hotel technology influence the satisfaction of hotel customers. Of the five categories of hotel technology considered (ie basic in-room, entertainment, business, comfort and mobile technologies), the study finds that entertainment technology is the most important. The results also indicate that comfort technology is considerably more important for hotel customers in Washington, DC than for hotel customers in Beijing. In addition to providing a research framework, this study provides a practical application for hotel managers to analyse guest comments to address customer complaints and enhance customer satisfaction at a location-specific level. Hotel managers can easily adopt the methodology to analyse property-specific customer data without substantial difficulty. Such data can then be used to meet customer needs and enhance customer satisfaction through the provision of technology that guests genuinely value. It can also assist managers in developing better marketing strategies for their hotels.
Custodial operations in Malta: Current opportunities
Authors: Ganado Max
Published: July 2024

An outline of major developments in Malta over the past two decades shows that the next major challenge in the investment services space is attracting custodians to Malta. Custodians are a critical factor in the island’s offering, especially in relation to UCITS. The author outlines the two options of a branch or a subsidiary and identifies the benefits and disadvantages of each option from a Maltese law perspective.
Building strategic alliances to support advocacy and planning for digital preservation
Authors: Baucom Erin , Troup Tammy , Cote Conor , Mannheimer Sara
Published: July 2024

While the business benefits of digital asset management are well documented, the benefits and importance of digital preservation are not. Digital preservation is a sustained commitment to maintenance activities that require a system of plans, policies and implementation workflows. Coordination across departments is helpful for digital asset management, but it is mandatory for digital preservation. The Montana Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG) operated under a five-point plan for collaboration between organisations. The plan consisted of cultivating shared knowledge, assessing the current digital preservation landscape at each institution, advocating for the value of digital preservation, implementing digital preservation practices, and sustaining the partnership by developing structures for ongoing projects and mutual support. In this paper, the five-point plan for collaboration used by DPWG is adapted to build alliances in four essential areas of an organisation: the project and process team, the management team, the executive team and the information technology team. By building strategic alliances that support digital preservation advocacy and planning, information managers extend their reach and resources, ultimately leading to more robust preservation of valuable digital assets.
Managing health supply chain risk through strategic outsourcing in low- and middle-income countries
Authors: Perri Julia , Walker Giuliana Canessa , D’Herlincourt Ségolène
Published: July 2024

This paper explores how strategic outsourcing of public health supply chain functions to private sector companies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is a catalyst to reduce operational risks and achieve agility and efficiency. Private sector engagement in public health supply chains increases market competitivity, improves efficiency and allows for cost reduction, while enabling ministries of health to focus on their core competencies and become stewards of their supply chain operations. The paper highlights best practices on strategic outsourcing for contracting entities and third-party logistics (3PL) to minimise risk. Strategic outsourcing has become increasingly common across LMIC contexts as emerging economies take advantage of private sector growth; however, outsourcing does not automatically mean increased efficiency or transparency, unless it is done properly. Recommended best practices include ensuring transparent and fair competition; understanding market capabilities and geographical constraints, as well as available infrastructure; setting up key performance indicators; improving service agility; and creating the best distribution network for higher efficiency. The paper also presents three case studies, including lessons learned and results from strategic outsourcing in Zambia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Time for TIF? The prospects for the introduction of Tax Increment Financing in the UK from a local authority perspective
Authors: Greenhalgh Paul , Furness Hannah , Hall Adam
Published: July 2024

In September 2010, following an endorsement by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference, HM Treasury released a press statement confirming that TIF would be introduced in the UK. It stated that Treasury and local authorities would work together in order to design a framework of rules within which TIF would operate. This research investigates what this framework of rules may comprise and how it may operate in the UK. There is surprising neglect, in literature on TIF, of what local authorities think about it and its potential to facilitate regeneration projects. A survey of 200 local authorities in the UK was conducted, complemented by interviews with local authority officers in Scotland, where pilot TIF projects are already under way. The research focuses in particular on the approval process necessary to ensure viable TIF schemes are identified and progressed, how these schemes are managed and financed, and what the main risks are for local authorities. Of primary concern to LA officers is the financial viability of a project, followed by its long-term commercial viability, overall cost, value for money and impact on surrounding areas. The main risks are identified as being that: the uplift in business rates is insufficient to cover the cost of the loan; TIF does not work in areas of greatest need; private sector investment fails to materialise; and displacement is generated. The paper concludes that such risks may be mitigated by adopting a rigorous appraisal process and robust management structure, and predicts that a two-tier TIF approval process, with similarities to that employed by the Scottish TIF pilots, may emerge.