Impact Assessment of Incentive Schemes for the Sustainable Development of Nigerian Construction Industry

The concept of construction productivity and the needs for incentive schemes towards improving the performance of Artisan has long been established. The choice of particular scheme either financial or non financial and to what level it contributes to the productivity of employees remain at stake. Therefore, this study set to evaluate the level of awareness, impact and contribution of the schemes with more emphasis to the non financial incentive schemes. A questionnaire survey involving management and artisans of the three tiers of NCl （Nigerian Construction Industry）： large, medium and small within Kaduna and Abuja Nigeria was conducted. Three hundred （300） responses from the management and artisans were used for analysis, inferences and conclusions. The survey result revealed that non-financial incentive schemes are mostly employed in the large and medium scale construction firms. Though, preference by medium and small scale firms was based on those that do not require fund to implement and maintain. It was concluded that, construction firms operating in Nigeria ought to strive more towards implementing non-financial incentive in their organization since artisans are willing to improve their output.

Simulation of the role of emphasis on scheduling in the optimal incentive scheme for marine engineering employee’s routine job and information security compliance

In the organizational context of marine engineering,employee individual often prefers to concentrate herself to the day-to-day routine job,but to shirk the responsibilities of the Information Security Policies(ISPs)compliance,after she has been delegated by the employer to perform the two different tasks in the same time period.This would lead to negative influences on the security of marine information systems and the employee’s routine job performance.In view of the task structures of employee’s routine job and marine ISPs compliance,the variables of emphasis on scheduling are incorporated into a multi-task principal-agent model to explore the optimal incentive scheme to motivate and control the employees to select appropriate effort levels for conducting the two highly structured tasks.The role of emphasis on scheduling on the incentive intensities for the two tasks have been clarified through modeling and simulation,and the corresponding incentive tactics are suggested.The new two-task incentive scheme is expected to provide useful insight for understanding and controlling marine engineering employee’s routine job and ISPs compliance behavior.

Novel Incentive Scheme to Motivate Flexible Customers for Phase Balancing

Phase imbalance is a significant and widespread problem in low voltage(LV,415V)networks.This paper develops a novel incentive scheme that encourages flexible customers to engage in phase balancing.On the technical side,this incentive scheme is based on a centralized control algorithm utilizing the inherent fexibility of customers'AC/DC converters to achieve phase balancing at the substation side of LV networks.On the incentive side,first,this paper calculates the benefits from phase balancing.It then defines a rebalancing contribution index that quantifies the flexible customer's contribution to addressing the predominant imbalance-induced consequence,e.g,capacity wastes,and energy losses.According to the contribution indices and the benefits,the incentive scheme rewards flexible customers correspondingly and guides them to prioritize the predominant consequence of phase imbalance.Case studies demonstrate that:1)the remunerations paid to the flexible customers primarily depends on their contributions to addressing the predominant imbalance-induced consequences for the network in question;2)the incentive scheme does not discriminate against small/medium-sized flexible customers who are dedicated to phase balancing,thus promoting inclusiveness.

Applications of Business Process Management （BPM） in Chinese Firms： A Managerial Accounting Perspective

Based on a questionnaire survey, the aim of this paper is to explore the relationship of business process management （BPM） with managerial accounting system （MAS） and their economic performance consequences in Chinese firms. Statistical data show that more firms accept business process improvement （BPI） other than business process reengineering （BPR） and optimize their activity chains other than supply chains. Through the construction of three elements, i.e., goal-setting, monitoring, and incentive schemes, of MAS, the study finds that when implementing BPM, firms usually use accounting indexes to set goals of the effect of business processes and combine the goals with monitoring and incentive schemes. Statistical data also show that incentive schemes get the lowest usage degree compared with goal-setting and monitoring. In addition, there are differences in their managerial accounting usages for BPM among firms considering ownership, industry, and scale. The main finding of this paper is that BPM empirically brings favorable changes to firms＇ economic performance via managerial accounting in general, and via goal-setting, monitoring, and incentive schemes in particular.

Optimal incentive mechanism for dual referral based on the analytic hierarchy process

Objective:The optimal incentive mechanism for dual referral is discussed to provide a decision-making foundation for the implementation of a dual referral incentive mechanism.Methods:We established a multi-hierarchy evaluation model for a dual referral incentive mechanism by analyzing the main schemes and measures used to stimulate dual referral.The weight values of every scheme or measure were determined and consistency tests were carried out using expert judgement methods and an analytic hierarchy process.Results:The weight values of patients,community physicians,and hospital physicians as the incentive objects were 0.2583,0.1047,and 0.6370,respectively,and the weight values of medical insurance-based reward and punishment,community medical center construction,referral plat-form,and publicity and communication as incentive schemes were 0.4950,0.3103,0.1164,and 0.0783,respectively.Conclusion:The main incentive object in the implementation of a dual referral is the hospital physician,followed by the patient.The most workable incentive scheme is“medical insurance-based reward and punishment,”followed by“community medical center construction.”