Multi-site organizations must balance conflicting forces to determine the appropriate degree of purchasing centralization for their respective supplies. The ability to garner quantity discounts represents one of the primary reasons that organizations centralize procurement. This paper provides...

This article develops supply contracts covering environments with changing prices. We investigate characterization properties of the price processes, while considering costs and discount factors. We determine expressions of the contract's expected low price and its second moment for a given...

The third and final study examines the causal relationship between uncertainty about macroeconomic fundamentals and return volatility. The underlying question is: does higher return volatility result in higher uncertainty in beliefs amongst analysts, or the other way around? Using daily data on...

In this paper, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data from ENVISAT ASAR ascending, descending and ALOS PALSAR ascending orbits are collected to investigate the coseismic displacements of the Mw 6.4 earthquake occurred in Gaize, Tibet on January 9, 2008 and the Mw 5.9 aftershock on January 16, 2008....

Differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (D-InSAR) has been viewed as a promising technique in monitoring sudden geo-hazards (e.g., earthquake and landslide) in mountainous areas. However, the tough natural settings (e.g., steep slopes and vegetation) pose the D-InSAR technique to...