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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Abdul Razaque; Christian Bach; Nyembo salama; Aziz Alotaibi |
| Abstract: | Deployment of emerging technologies and rapid change in industries has created a lot of risk for initiating the new projects. Many techniques and suggestions have been introduced but still lack the gap from various prospective. This paper proposes a reliable project scheduling approach. The objectives of project scheduling approach are to focus on critical chain schedule and risk management. Several risks and reservations exist in projects. These critical reservations may not only foil the projects to be finished within time limit and budget, but also degrades the quality, and operational process. In the proposed approach, the potential risks of project are critically analyzed. To overcome these potential risks, fuzzy failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is introduced. In addition, several affects of each risk against each activity are evaluated. We use Monte Carlo simulation that helps to calculate the total time of project. Our approach helps to control risk mitigation that is determined using event tree analysis and fault tree analysis. We also implement distribute critical chain schedule for reliable scheduling that makes the project to be implemented within defined plan and schedule. Finally, adaptive procedure with density (APD) is deployed to get reasonable feeding buffer time and project buffer time. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1210.2021&r=ppm |
| By: | Jussila Hammes, Johanna (VTI) |
| Abstract: | We study factors affecting the choice of objects to be included in the National Transport Infrastructure Plans for 2004-2015 and for 2010-2021 in Sweden, controlling for the CBA results. The present working paper contains both a comparative analysis between the two Plans, and sensitivity analyses for the econometric regressions of the 2010-21 Plan conducted in Jussila Hammes (forthcoming). We find that the centre-right government tended to favour those counties that voted for it. Both a centre-right and a centre-left government have favoured rail investments over road. Lobbying also matters; projects with co-financing from the local municipality(ies) have a greater probability of being included in the Plan. Industry lobbying has at best a borderline significant effect and affects the probability of a project being included in the Plan positively. |
| Keywords: | Transport infrastructure plan; Lobbying; Co-financing; Freight benefits; Politics |
| JEL: | D61 D72 L98 |
| Date: | 2012–10–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ctswps:2012_021&r=ppm |
| By: | Jung Y. Kim; Tricia Collins Higgins; Dominick Esposito; Angela M. Gerolamo; Mark Flick |
| Keywords: | SMI Innovations, Pennsylvania, Health |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2012–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7556&r=ppm |
| By: | Irenaeus Wolff; J. Philipp Reiss |
| Abstract: | We examine the incentive effects of funding contracts on entrepreneurial effort decisions and allocative efficiency. We experiment with funding contracts that differ in the structure of investor repayment and, therefore, in the incentives for entrepreneurial effort provision. Theoretically the replacement of a standard debt contract by a repayment-equivalent non-monotonic contract reduces effort distortions and increases efficiency. Likewise the replacement of outside equity by a repayment-equivalent standard-debt contract mitigates distortions. We test both hypotheses in the laboratory. Our results reveal that the incentive effects of funding contracts need to be experienced before they reflect in observed behavior. With sufficient experience observed behavior is consistent with the theoretical predictions and supports both hypotheses. If we allow for entrepreneur-sided manipulations of the project outcome we find that non-monotonic contracts lose its appeal. |
| Keywords: | hidden information, funding contracts, incentives, experiment, standard debt contract, non-monotonic contract, state manipulation |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:twi:respas:0078&r=ppm |
| By: | Irma Clots-Figueras; Roberto Hernán; Praveen Kujal |
| Abstract: | Several situations in our daily interactions are characterized by uncertainty and asymmetric information regarding the final outcomes. For example, an investor may overstate a project’s value, or a superior may choose to under, or over, state the gains from a project to a subordinate. We modify the standard investment game to study the effect of possible deception, i.e. over-, or under-, statement of the true value, on investee (and investor) behavior. We find that deception is prevalent and around 66% of the investors send false messages. Investors both over-, and under-, state the true value of the multiplier, k. We elicit investee beliefs and find that investees are naive in that almost half of them believe the message they receive. Meanwhile, a large proportion of investors think that sending a message was useful. The introduction of the possibility of deception does not affect trust or trustworthiness on average, but deceivers make the deceived worse off, return less and are more likely to report lying to avoid harming others. Finally, an increase in information asymmetry increases deception |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1227&r=ppm |
| By: | Martinho, Vítor João Pereira Domingues |
| Abstract: | The work presented here is based in a set of outcomes from a project developed in four rural municipalities of the center of Portugal, with the names Vouzela, Mangualde, Seia and Guarda. This project was supported by the National Support Reference Framework (NSRF) and had the objective of the women empowerment. The NSRF is a framework financed by Portuguese and European funds and has a duration from 2007 to 2013. The objective of this work is, using the information that it was possible obtain with this project, to analyze the dynamics, essentially, of the women in rural areas, namely at the empowerment level. For that it was examined, specifically, the expectations of different groups of namely women about the possibility of valorization and more society participation at several levels. It is possible to conclude about the weak expectations of public in general in the rural zones about the possibilities of empowerment, namely because social, cultural and economic contexts. -- |
| Keywords: | Women empowerment,rural municipalities,women expectations,internal and external contexts |
| JEL: | O18 R00 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–10–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:64806&r=ppm |
| By: | Masresha Andarge; Mieke van Riet (Maastricht School of Management, the Netherlands); Patrick Martens (Maastricht School of Management, the Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | The practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a common traditional practice among the Afar communities of Eastern Ethiopia. FGM, as well as other harmful traditional practices, including early marriage, face branding with sharp tools and abduction, are common among the Afar communities of Eastern Ethiopia. This has been threatening the lives of women and children and remains very prevalent. The practice of FGM, although now illegal in Ethiopia, continues and has been sustained by deep-rooted cultural values and habits. Despite world wide publicity and attention, FGM has proved to be difficult to eradicate. The problems in Dawe district are exacerbated by poor health service coverage and high maternal and child mortality rates caused by a variety of health-related factors. The region is in general underdeveloped and remote from the major towns and cities. That FGM seriously violates women’s and girl’s sexual rights as well as being harmful to the health of any woman is now well-established fact. The traditional thinking in the Afar communities, however, forces women to want and undergo the practice without questioning. This situation is not unique to Dawe in Ethiopia: even after more than 25 years of effort to reduce FGM, there is still a limited understanding of the practice, and the success and fail-factors in the approaches used. Results of interventions are variable, and to some, are disappointing considering the large efforts dedicated to erasing this practice. Studies find that in certain communities, reported FGM numbers are still as high as 80-100% of all females (WHO, 2010). The Afar Women Support Project (AWSP), implemented by the Ethiopian NGO, ‘Action for Integrated Sustainable Development Association’ (AISDA), is assessed as a relevant case study in this paper. The AWSP received funding from the Dutch SK Foundation following an initial incubation of the project design in an educational program at the Maastricht School of Management (MSM). The design phase started with comprehensive problem identification leading to detailed planned in a combination of implementation strategies encompassing ‘hard’ medical training, including the provision of basic kits for improved child delivery services for Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), and ‘soft’ measures focused on achieving attitude change through integrated community development and mass mobilization using different communication strategies appropriate to the local setting. The project was launched immediately after the signing of an operational agreement with the main stakeholders of the regional state in consultation with Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Food Security Programs Coordination Bureau (DPPFSPCB), Women, Children and Youth Affairs Bureau (WCYAB), Bureau of Health (BoH). Religious and clan leaders were involved as important stakeholders whose support and participation proved vital. A specific component was targeted at youth and schools where the future momentum for lasting change will come from. The project implementation approach was based on stakeholder participation throughout and undergirded by application of a rigorous project methodology – ‘Project Cycle Management.’ This paper critically examines the activities and results of the AWSP drawing conclusions from the wide-ranging project activities and distilling lessons for the future. Also, some recent relevant literature on FGM is traversed given the increasing attention to attitude and behavior change as key factors in overcoming health and education related problems in overcoming poverty. In this regard, it is argued that the AWSP’s activities and results provide an important contribution to the field, particularly concerning appropriate strategies to overcome deeply engrained, but harmful cultural norms and traditions. |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msm:wpaper:2012/20&r=ppm |
| By: | Fardoust, Shahrokh; Lin, Justin Yifu; Luo, Xubei |
| Abstract: | China's government economic stimulus package in 2008-09 appears to have worked well. It seems to have been about the right size, included a number of appropriate components, and was well timed. Its subnational component was designed to maximize the impact of the stimulus package on the economy and minimize the potential procyclical elements that are usually built into subnational fiscal mechanisms in federal countries. Moreover, China's massive fiscal stimulus played an important role in the overall recovery of the global economy. Using a simple analytical framework, this paper focuses on two key factors behind the success of the stimulus: investments in bottleneck-easing infrastructure projects and countercyclical nature of subnational spending based on the assumption that well-chosen infrastructure projects could improve business climate and thereby crowd in the private investment. The paper concludes that the expansionary subnational government spending played a key role in strengthening the overall impact of the stimulus and sustaining growth. It also highlights the importance of public investment quality and cautions about the sustainability of local government financing through the domestic banking system and increases in local governments off balance sheet or contingent liabilities. These lessons may be of particular relevance today for China, as well as other countries, in formulating policy response to another global economic slowdown or crisis, possibly as a result of the Eurozone turmoil. For China, investing in urban infrastructure and green economy, as well as in higher quality and better targeted social services, will be crucial for improving income inequality and inducing a more inclusive growth path. |
| Keywords: | Debt Markets,Subnational Economic Development,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2012–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6221&r=ppm |