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20 July 2021, Volume 29 Issue 7 Previous Issue    Next Issue

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Study on Systematic Risk and Investment Strategy Based on Bank-Asset Bipartite Network Model GAO Qian-qian, FAN Hong 2021, 29 (7):  1-12.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2019.1581 Abstract ( 549 )   PDF (2554KB) ( 265 )   Save Influenced by the international financial crisis and financial globalization in recent years, the research on the systemic risk of the financial system has become a hot topic. Existing related researches mainly focus on direct contagion channel of interbank market ("bank-to-bank"), while, the indirect contagion channel of "bank-asset-bank" is relatively little. Moreover, the research on systematic risk of Chinese banking system and quantitative investment strategy of banks based on the bilateral network has not been studied yet. Therefore, based on the bank-asset bipartite network model (there are two types of nodes:bank node and asset node, and the bank-asset bipartite network is constructed by the asset portfolio of each bank), the systemic risk and investment strategy of banks are analyzed in this paper. Firstly, the bank-asset bipartite network model of Chinese banking system is constructed by using 47 listed banks' balance sheet data in 2018, to study the systemic risk when each asset class is shocked. All five categories of banks (state-owned large-scale commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, urban commercial banks, rural commercial banks, and policy banks) except foreign banks in the Chinese banking market have been covered in the 47 listed Chinese banks used in this paper, and all listed banks in China are basically covered. The data comes from the balance sheet in the 2018 annual reports disclosed by each bank, including the total assets, total liabilities and detailed asset portfolio data of each bank. In this paper, the assets of each bank are finally divided into five categories based on their investment attributes and income types, namely, cash, interbank assets, financial investment, loans, and other asset classes. Then, the systemic shock is introduced, and the investment strategy model is constructed by setting up two classes of assets with different attributes and generating four shock events (in the investment strategy model, assets are divided into two categories:low-risk and low-return, high-risk and high-return; four kinds of systemic shocks are formed by the combination of "profit" or "loss" events of the two categories of assets). The impact of changes in the proportion of different assets invested by banks on the systemic risk of banks are studied to explore the banks' optimal investment strategy. Research results show that external shocks and price-cut selling effects, which are the two factors of the systemic risk, will produce a superposition effect at a certain interval value, causing a sharp increase in the systemic risk; the loan assets are found to be most sensitive to external shocks; the asset portfolios of all banks that have not failed under all of asset shocks have certain similarities; further research finds that there is an optimal asset portfolio in the banking system, which enables banks to obtain maximum returns while maintaining stability, and the greater the asset-liability ratio, the stronger their risk tolerance, and the more aggressive investment strategies can be chose to pursue high returns. The role of external shocks and price-cut selling effects is found, which provides a certain reference for the related research of the systemic risk under the bank-asset bilateral network. The research also shows that the bank's investment portfolio has a significant impact on the systemic risk of the bank, which is helpful to the bank's investment decisions and the risk monitoring of the relevant regulatory authorities. The actual data of Chinese listed banks are used for empirical analysis, which provides a reference for the Chinese banking industry to deal with external risks and asset price fluctuations. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Design of Refinancing Product for PPP Transport Project Based on Traffic Volume Risk WANG Kun, QIN Xue-zhi, SONG Yu 2021, 29 (7):  13-22.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2019.0389 Abstract ( 435 )   PDF (1497KB) ( 204 )   Save In recent years, the Public-Private Partnership model has been vigorously promoted in order to efficiently provide infrastructure services that meet public needs. Long period and high risk are existed in PPP transport projects. In addition to the initial capital of the construction period, the subsequent operation period also requires high operation and maintenance costs. The financing problem becomes the key to the success of PPP projects due to the huge investment. As the initiator, government needs to provide certain guarantee for the project to attract the participation of social capital. However, over-guarantee lacks incentives for social capital. Once a large amount of debt default occurs, it will cause a huge financial burden. In view of the above problems, domestic and foreign scholars have conducted extensive studies on PPP project refinancing and the ratio of government guarantee, but few studies have been conducted on the specific design and pricing of innovative market-oriented refinancing products. Referring to the mechanism of government guarantee and contingent capital, a structured product embedded with contingent face value increase and decrease clauses collateralized by future operating earnings is designed. When the project income does not reach the lower threshold, the loss is absorbed by the write-down clause. When the project development exceeds the expected upper threshold, the excess earnings are shared by the write-up clause. Merton model in structural approach is used to solve the pricing problem under the risk-neutral world. It is divided into the following steps in specific:Firstly, the contingent clauses are designed on the basis of the project revenue bond by coordinating the interests of stakeholders. Secondly, the model is established based on traffic volume variation, which is the most important determinant of the project income. Finally, taking a PPP transport project as an example, the product price and risk spread are computed and sensitivity analysis of some important parameters are carried out to explore the economic effect. The example is selected from the project management library of China Public Private Partnerships Center. Due to the confidentiality of franchise agreement, this paper only refers to the basic framework of the expressway PPP project case, and makes reasonable assumptions based on the feasibility analysis report and bidding documents. A refinancing product combining the project revenue bond and contingent clauses is proposed, which makes up for the deficiency of insufficient research on product design and pricing. The results show that the product can effectively reduce government guarantee burden as well as financing cost. Compared with ordinary project revenue bonds, the product can reduce the government guarantee burden. Compared with ordinary write-down bonds, it can reduce the issuing cost. It is conducive to achieve the revenue sharing-risk sharing incentive compatibility situation between the issuers and the investors. Under the design of clauses and parameters, the risk spread of PPP refinancing product is positively correlated with the risk-free interest rate, the lower guarantee threshold coefficient and the write-down ratio, and negatively correlated with the volatility of traffic volume. It provides a reference for the reasonable selection of some parameters and product risk management. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Influence Research on the Joint Ordering Policy for Spare Parts Considering Carbon Tax YANG Jian-hua, HAN Meng-ying 2021, 29 (7):  23-32.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1755 Abstract ( 378 )   PDF (1984KB) ( 201 )   Save Spare parts inventory management is a very important work in equipment support engineering, and the classical METRIC theory is proposed for repairable spare parts with high price and low demand rate, and such spare parts usually adopt (S-1,S) inventory strategy. However, for non-repairable spare parts with moderate price, high consumption and important role in equipment operation, the inventory strategy of continuous inspection (S-1,S) is no longer applicable, and this kind of spare parts is more suitable to adopt (r,Q) inventory strategy. On the other hand, under the carbon tax policy, the spare parts support unit has to adjust the ordering strategy to achieve emission and cost reduction. Therefore, under the two-echelon support chain consisting of multiple grassroots stations and one base station, we conduct joint optimization on the ordering strategy of each station, and analysis the impact of carbon tax policy on the ordering decision of support chain. In this paper, it is assumed that the demand for spare parts is subject to Poisson distribution; the grassroots station i implements (ri,Qi) inventory strategy and the lead-time is Li; the base station implements (T0,Q0) inventory strategy and the lead-time is L0. With such assumptions, the spare parts ordering models of grassroots-level and stations are firstly constructed respectively. Then, the joint order model is obtained by combining the separate models together, and the model takes grassroots station reorder point ri, order quantity Qi and base station replenishments times mi as decision variables, takes spare parts satisfaction rate as constraint, and takes expected cost as target. Finally, the model is solved by the policy-iteration algorithm, and the influence of carbon tax on support chain decision is studied in the numerical analysis. The numerical analysis results show that the results of the influence of the lower limit of spare parts satisfaction rate to the decision of the support chain are consistent with the actual situation, thus the correctness and feasibility of the model are verified. When the carbon tax is relatively high, the grassroots stations tend to order fewer spare parts in the larger reorder points, while the base station tend to order fewer spare parts at an earlier time to make up for the increase of the support chain cost caused by the high tax value. Although the carbon tax policy increases the support chain cost, while a reasonable tax can be achieved significant emission reduction effect and is conducive to the reduction of environmental cost. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Evolutionary Game Analysis of LSSC Service Quality Control Strategy Based on Prospect Theory DIAO Shu-jie, KUANG Hai-bo, MENG Bin, SHI Bao-feng 2021, 29 (7):  33-45.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1536 Abstract ( 454 )   PDF (2624KB) ( 269 )   Save The quality of logistics service depends on the joint efforts of the integrator (LSI) and the provider (FLSP) in the logistics service supply chain (LSSC). In the real environment, both parties will update and adjust behaviors according to their perception and judgment on economic interests, thus resulting in the deviation of behavioral decisions, which leads to the difficulty in achieving the optimal evolutionary results. However, the existing researches around logistics service supply chain management mostly focus on the expected utility theory and take the objective value of gain/loss as the basis of decision-making, which ignores the behavioral deviation caused by the characteristic of bounded rationality of decision-makers. In this regard, prospect theory is integrated into evolutionary game in this paper to explore the dynamic evolution of logistics service quality management, extending the discussion on the risk attitude, perceived probability and other psychological factors in the logistics service supply chain. The perceived value function in prospect theory is adopted in the payoff matrix of evolutionary game taking into account of substitution effect caused by the competition in the logistics service market. By considering parameters such as loss aversion coefficient and gain/loss sensitivity coefficient in prospect theory, the law of behavior evolution of players is demonstrated from the perspective of perceived value and the behavior deviation generated by traditional game theory and the expected utility theory can be adjusted when explaining the game of logistics service quality management. Based on this, the game process between FLSP's service strategy and LSI's control strategy is analyzed and a simulation analysis is performed to depict the influence of key psychological factors, substitution effect and responsibility sharing ratio on the evolution system. The results indicate that:(1) Intensifying the FLSP's perceived value of default cost and reinforcing the substitution effect among the LSIs are proved as effective ways for the system to converge to the optimal evolutionary stable point; (2) The problem of service default can be effectively mitigated by improving the cognition degree of LSIs and FLSPs on logistics risk; (3) The influences of core elements on the system evolution are different, and the simulation results can be used to explain practical problems induced by improper sharing of responsibilities for LSIs and FLSPs. This paper aims to provide new research and management insight for improving the logistics service quality from the perspective of competition mechanism and responsibility sharing contract. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impact of Manufacturer Service Provision on Retailer Parallel Importation HU Bin, DING Long, HU Sen, FENG Yi-hang 2021, 29 (7):  46-56.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1685 Abstract ( 360 )   PDF (2164KB) ( 226 )   Save Gray marketing emerges when gray marketers stealthily resell a branded product without the manufacturer's authorization. Previous research has examined gray marketing from various angles, but there lacks study from the perspective of service quaility in a decentralized supply chain where the retailer engages in parallel importation. A gray market structure composed of a manufacturer and a retailer is investigated in this paper. The manufacturer sells products directly to the high-end market, whereas the products are sold to the low-end market through the retailer. The gray market will be formed once the retailer diverts the products into the high-end market. A benchmark model is established without service provision and a service quality model. Through the comparative analysis of the two models, the influence of the manufacturer's after-sales service quality strategy on the gray market scale and firms profit is examined. It is found that service provision increases the prices of low-end product price, gray product and high-end product. In addition, the finding shows that service provision decreases the gray product demand and increases the low-end product demand. Interestingly, it is also found that service provision increases the manufacturer profit and does not always decrease the retailer profit, it could result in a win-win situation. The reason is as follow. On the one hand, service provision decreases the profit of retailer from gray market, on the other hand it also increases the demand of low-end product which increases the retailer profit from low-end market. Whether the total profit of retailer increases or decreases will depend on which effect is taking the dominant place. Our results suggest that the manufacturer service provision is an effective method to manage the gray market problem, which inhibits the gray market demand and increases the profits of manufacturer. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The Impacts of Carbon Tax on Emissions Abatement Level in a Supply Chain under Different Power Structures HUANG Di, ZHANG Ju-liang 2021, 29 (7):  57-70.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1761 Abstract ( 501 )   PDF (1490KB) ( 286 )   Save As China continues advancing the construction of eco-civilization, promoting emissions abatement collaboration in supply chains has become an important measure in practicing green development concept in production and consumption domains. However, in green supply chain management different types of core enterprises have different development objectives and business strategies so that supply chain power structure has become a key factor in emissions abatement decision-making. In this paper, a two-echelon supply chain that consists of two manufacturers and one retailer is investigated, in which the manufacturers decide the emissions abatement levels of their products whereas the retailer decides the retail prices of the products. A Stackelberg-Nash game is characterized and the equilibrium solutions are derived for both the case where the manufacturers are the duopoly supply chain leaders and the case where the retailer is the monopoly supply chain leader.In both cases, the game model consists of two sub-games:a vertical leader-follower Stackelberg game between the manufacturers and the retailer, and a horizontal Nash game between the two manufacturers.Numerical experiments using representative data from real industry datasets and some manipulated datasets in related literature are conducted to examine the impacts of production cost, wholesale price and carbon tax rate on the optimal emissions abatement and pricing decisions.Based on these theoretical results, it is shown that:under two types of supply chain structures, (1) when the wholesale price is fixed, decreasing the unit production cost will increase the manufacturers' optimal emissions abatement levels; however, when the unit production cost is fixed, increasing the wholesale price will not always lead to an increase in emissions abatement levels; (2) for manufacturers who have low baseline emissions, increasing carbon tax rate will increase their optimal emissions abatement levels, while for manufacturers who have high baseline emissions, increasing carbon tax rate will decrease their optimal emissions abatement levels unexpectedly; (3) in general, the optimal emissions abatement levels and total supply chain profit are relatively higher and the total carbon emissions is relatively lower when the retailer is the supply chain leader. Finally, it is found that with the increase of wholesale price, double marginalization has been intensified under both the two supply chain power structures. However,according to the numerical results it is suggested that within a certain range of carbon tax rate, the optimal emissions abatement levels and total carbon emissions under both the two supply chain power structures are better off when compared with the supply chain centralized case due to the existence of double marginalization. Inthis research,some useful managerial insights are developed for emissions abatement collaboration in supply chains under carbon tax policies. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Systemic Risk Spillovers and Systemic Risk Contributions of Financial Institutions in China: A Perspective of Dual Time-varying Dependence of Rolling Window Dynamic Copula Model ZHAO Lin-hai, CHEN Ming-zhi 2021, 29 (7):  71-83.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2020.2179 Abstract ( 374 )   PDF (946KB) ( 250 )   Save In recent years, China's financial sector has encountered more and more unstable factors than before. A number of factors, domestic and foreign, such as the increasing fiscal deficit of the central government, the heavy debt of local government, and the rising bad loans of banks, the trade conflicts between China and the United States and other developed countries, directly or indirectly pose a potential threat to the normal operation of China's financial sector and enhancing the expectation of financial instability of China. Due to China's current macroeconomic environment and uncertainty faced by China's financial sector, the decision-making authorities of Chinese government attach great importance to the prevention and resolution of systemic financial risks. How to continuously improve the accuracy of the model for risk measurement and prediction, and provide more reliable, multi-level and multi-perspective reference for the formulation and implementation of effective regulatory policies is the direction of joint efforts of academia and regulatory authorities. In view of this, this paper takes 33 listed financial institutions in the four industries, banking, securities, insurance and comprehensive financial services in China, as samples to empirically study their systemic risk spillovers, their systemic risk contributions and the determinants. The rolling window dynamic copula model is applied to fit both the time-varying structures and the time-varying coefficients of the dependence between financial institutions and the financial system. The systemic risks of sample financial institutions are measured with this dynamic dependent structure fitting framework, and the determinants of the systemic risk contributions of these financial institutions are investigated through macro, industry and institution-level analyses. The main conclusions are as follows. First, the systemic risk contributions of financial institutions in securities industry are the largest, while banking institutions are the biggest potential threat to the financial system. Second, the dependence structures of institutions and the system determine the size of institutional risk spillovers, and the degree of dependence between institutions and the system, and the volatility of the system significantly affect the systemic risk of the system as a whole. Third, there is a phenomenon of mutual transformation between financial risk and fiscal risk in China. The fundamental way to resolve the systemic financial risk is sticking to the improvement of the financial ecological environment. The contributions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, an improved dynamic copula model with dual time-varying characteristics is established to make the model settings and estimation closer to the real. Secondly, the determinants of systemic risk contributions of the financial institutions are analyzed from macro, industry and institution levels, which helps prevent and control risks from the source of systemic risk and can be used as a reference for regulatory decision-making. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on the Technology Open Strategy of Manufacturer TAN Dan, WEI Hang, LI Pei 2021, 29 (7):  84-95.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2019.0326 Abstract ( 335 )   PDF (2169KB) ( 130 )   Save In the high-tech fields, manufacturer is often faced with the tradeoff of technological advantage and demand advantage:the technology open strategy will not only expand the market scale and increase the product demand, but also reduce the cost of product components and parts, which will increase corporates profits; meanwhile, after the opening of technology, new manufacturers will enter the market and compete with the technology-leading enterprises, which will reduce the market share of enterprises and their ability to control the market. Therefore, the choice of appropriate technology strategy (open/closed) has gradually become an important decision for manufacturer. When choosing technology strategies, manufacturer often takes three factors into consideration:(1) Network externality. The existence of network externality makes the utility of consumers improve with the increase of the scale of consumer, which makes the technology open environment conducive to the potential market demand; (2) Economies of scale. The existence of economies of scale makes the cost of components and parts fall as the market demand increases. (3) New manufacturers. When manufacturer chooses technology open strategy, new manufacturers can obtain the technology for free and participate in market competition, which reduces the market share of manufacturer. Network externality and economies of scale constitute the market condition, which determine whether the manufacturer is willing to provide products for a certain market, while the entry of new manufacturers will change the existing market share and thus affect manufacturer's profit, these three factors affect each other and jointly determine the manufacturer's technology strategy. Within the framework of product demand theory, the choice of manufacturer's technology strategy is studied. By establishing the manufacturer's technology strategy model, the influence of product network externality, economies of scale and new manufacturers' optimal profits in is analyzed different technology strategies, and the technology strategy of the manufacturer, the market entry strategy of new manufacturers and the corresponding market outcome are obtained. At last, the research is extended, and the change of strategies and market outcomes are studied when there are multiple new manufacturers and when there is market entry cost. It is shown that:(1) The greater the influence coefficient of new manufacturers' number on the total market potential demand, the more manufacturer tend to adopt the technology open strategy; (2) Moderate strengths of network externality and economies of scale are favorable for manufacturer to adopt technology open strategy; (3) When the number of new manufacturers increases, the change direction of the manufacturer's technology strategy is determined by its initial technology strategy; (4) The market entry cost will not affect the manufacturer's technical strategy, but will change the market entry strategy of new manufacturers under the technology open strategy, and then differentiates the market outcome; (5) The patent fee will stimulate manufacturer to adopt technology open strategy. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Product Quality Choice and Patent licensing under Corporate Social Responsibility Investment ZHENG Shu-fang, JIN Liang, LIU Ying 2021, 29 (7):  96-109.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2019.1052 Abstract ( 381 )   PDF (2368KB) ( 243 )   Save Good quality of patent licensing would stimulate company to continuous innovation, realize the commercialization and industrialization of patented technology. However, corporate irresponsible behavior has frequently occurred, which caused a series of social problems and played a negative impact on the cooperation of patent licensing. Thus, a series of documents have issued to encourage enterprises to fulfill corporate social responsibilities (CSR). When branded manufacturer fulfill corporate social responsibilities, does the CSR investment really help to improve product quality? How to design the patent licensing? Focusing on these questions, a two-stage game is built to describe the operations of patent owner and branded manufacturer in the presence of asymmetric information and corporate social responsibility. In the first stage, the patent owner design the patent licensing and license its technology to branded manufacturer; In the second stage, the branded manufacturer use the technology to produce products and sell them to consumers. In this model, it is assumed that the product demand may be in two different ex ante quantity states:high and low. The true product demand cannot be observed by patent owner, but branded manufacturer can learn. The patent owner design the patent licensing to branded manufacturer in different product demand, then branded manufacturer use the technology to produce and determine the product quality and sale price. Finally, it is assumed that the branded manufacturer is equipped with CSR preference which is represented by the degree of branded manufacturer cares about consumer surplus. The analysis process is as follows. Firstly, we examine how CSR investment affect the patent licensing and product quality; Secondly, analyze the effect of CSR on the profit of patent owner and branded manufacturer; Finally, investigate the influence of CSR on consumer surplus and social welfare. The results show that:Patent owner would design the licensing contract of ‘fixed-fee’ in high product demand and ‘two-part tariff’ in low product demand; The CSR does not affect the form of licensing contract, but increase the fixed fee; A higher of product demand leads to a higher level of product quality, consumer surplus and profit for patent owner, but may not a higher level of sale price; CSR investment helps to enhance the product quality level, consumer surplus and the profit of patent owner, but decrease the profit of branded manufacturer; In the whole, the CSR investment has a positive impact on social welfare. The innovation of this paper, is not only extends the research of patent licensing and reveals the impact of corporate social responsibility, but also provides a theoretical basis for decision-making of patent owner and branded manufacturer. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Optimal Energy Procurement Policies in Smart Grid Energy Supply Chain Networks WANG Tian, LIANG Yang-yang 2021, 29 (7):  110-117.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1627 Abstract ( 373 )   PDF (1213KB) ( 184 )   Save The smart grid is not only the need of the development of grid technology itself, but also shines the light on the road of the economic and energy development for various countries. As a prominent representative of clean energy, the distributed generation system of renewable energy is the inevitable trend of smart grid development. However, the high uncertainty and intermittence of renewable energy due to weather and other uncertain factors pose great challenges to the stability of smart grid systems. In order to meet this challenge and give full play to the cost advantage of renewable energy, the decision-making problem of energy procurement in the many-to-many energy network supply chain with renewable energy supply is studied from the perspective of micro-operation, so as to obtain the optimal energy procurement amount for energy integrators, as well as the impacts of the energy shortage cost, power plant capacity and renewable energy on the optimal solution. An energy supply chain network composed of distributed micro-grid is considered. The energy supply chain network consists of multiple power plants and smart grids. Each smart grid is equipped with renewable energy, such as wind turbines or solar panels. In the smart grid, energy integrators are responsible for collecting users' demands and deciding to purchase the total power of traditional energy from power plants. If the uncertainty of renewable energy output leads to the imbalance of energy supply and demand, it is necessary for integrators to temporarily meet the demand of surplus power through the auxiliary power market, but occurring very high penalty cost. With the goal of minimizing the total cost, the integrator makes the optimal electricity purchase decision based on the power plant price and capacity, user demand and the prediction of renewable energy distribution. Game theory in the proposed supply chain network is used. The decision process is as follows. First, the power plants decide the electricity prices. Second, the integrators decide procurement quantities from each power plants. Third, the renewable energy output is realized. Finally, the integrators use purchased traditional power and renewable energy to satisfy smart grid users' demand, penalty cost occurs if there are any unsatisfied demands. Two research circumstances are considered. The first one is when the renewable energy can be perfectly controlled. The second one is when the renewable energy cannot be controlled, but only can be predicted based on its distribution function. It is found that the power generation capacity of the power plant has a direct impact on the strategy of energy integrators to use renewable energy. Moreover, energy integrators with larger renewable energy production capacity will increase their energy procurement amount even more to avoid the risk of uncertainty. Numerical studies are conducted to show our results. In the perfect case, the distribution proportion of the power plants' capacity is only related to the penalty cost. It can be seen that if the smart grid is located in a remote area or has other factors that cause large energy waste, the penalty cost will be larger, and the larger the distribution proportion, that is, the higher the priority of energy access. However, in the uncertainty case, it is found that if integrators further invest in renewable energy capacity and improve the ability of energy self-sufficiency, the proportion of traditional energy from power plants should be reduced. However, the opposite conclusion is found. When the integrator's own renewable energy capacity increases, it will increase the traditional energy proportion from the power plants. The conclusions of this paper can help smart grid energy integrators to save electricity costs, and provide some reference for realizing economical, reliable and stable power grid system. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on Low-carbon Vehicle Routing Problem Based on Modified Ant Colony Algorithm TANG Hui-ling, TANG Heng-shu, ZHU Xing-liang 2021, 29 (7):  118-127.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1405 Abstract ( 603 )   PDF (1319KB) ( 459 )   Save Global climate deterioration endangers human living environment, and the large amount of greenhouse gases produced in the process of logistics transportation which is flourishing nowadays is one of the main causes of this disaster. Carbon emission control of vehicles in logistics transportation industry can help promote the development of green logistics transportation industry, so that great contributions to environment protection can be made. The key to solve this problem is to achieve the shortest running path(the lowest running cost) of the traditional vehicle routing problem, and to ensure that the carbon emission of vehicles in the running process are effectively reduced at the same time.Aim at offering some theoretical suggestions to the problem discussed above, the vehicle routing problem(VRP) with carbon emission constrain is studied in this paper. Firstly, a multi-objective VRP optimization model is established, which contains the objectives of minimizing vehicle mileage and carbon emission. When calculating the vehicle carbon emission, influence factors such as vehicle type, load, speed, travel distance and even road condition are all taken into consideration comprehensively. This can be a good supplement to the research and design of similar literature. Then an improved ant colony system algorithm is proposed to solve the model. Chaotic disturbance mechanism is introduced to update the ant pheromones on the path, which reduces the probability of falling into local optimal solution while the algorithm is running, and effectively improves the adaptability of the algorithm. At the same time, the heuristic factor, state transition probability and pheromone updating are optimized to improve the search efficiency of optimal path.Finally, the numerical simulation results show that this algorithm outperforms genetic algorithm and tabu search algorithm which are commonly used in the same kind of research, and it has strong global optimization ability. Under the guarantee of sensitivity and effectiveness, the improved ant colony algorithm designed in this studyis another feasible heuristic algorithmfor low-carbon vehicle routing problem, and its performance is comparatively good. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Behavior Selection of Supply Chain Members Considering Reference Carbon Emission under Carbon Tax Policy WANG Jun, CHENG Xian-xue, JIANG Yu-shan, DONG Zhen-min 2021, 29 (7):  128-138.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1750 Abstract ( 477 )   PDF (1625KB) ( 293 )   Save Greenhouse gas emissions have attracted considerable attention of governments and consumers due to global climate problems. As a key manner, carbon tax policy has been worldwide implemented to reduce emissions. Meanwhile, consumers' increasing awareness of low carbon has begun to affect the purchasing behavior. The reference carbon emission is considered and used to characterize the impact of consumers' low carbon awareness on market demand. The behavior choice of supply chain members is investigated under carbon tax policy. In a low-carbon supply chain consisting of a leading manufacturer and a following retailer, the effects of farsighted and myopic behaviors of the manufacturer on the profits of the supply chain are studied via a Stackelberg differential game model. The manufacturer's optimal carbon emission, wholesale price, retailer's optimal retail price, and their respective profits under both behaviors are deduced. The effects of some parameters on the manufacturer's behavior choice and supply chain profit are illustrated by numerical study. The results show that the myopic manufacturer will produce products with lower carbon emissions. In myopic scenario, the leading manufacturer will not necessarily get higher profit than the retailer. The behavior choice of supply chain members depends on the impact of reference carbon emissions on demand and the ratio of revenue-sharing contract. Given that the revenue-sharing contract cannot fully coordinate the supply chain, a one-time transfer contract is further designed to coordinate the supply chain. The research results can provide theoretical guidance for operators of supply chain firms to make pricing and emission reduction decisions. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on Buyback Contract of Supply Chain with Retailer Transshipment Considering False Failure Returns FAN Xiang-yu, HU Bo-ya, WU Xiao-ping 2021, 29 (7):  139-147.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1563 Abstract ( 317 )   PDF (1043KB) ( 411 )   Save With the increasing social competition,False Failure Returns policies are often adopted by retailers to increase market sales of products.The possibility of inventory transshipment among retailers was not considered in previous studies on supply chain coordination with False Failure Returns.But in reality, retailer inventory transfer strategy is often used in supply chain as a powerful coordination mechanism.In this paper, the retailer's transshipment strategy is introduced into the supply chain with False Failure Returns. Considering the effect of retailer's effort level on consumers' false failure returns rate, the supply chain coordination mechanism based on improved differentiated buy-back contract is studied.Focusing on False Failure Returns in a supply chain system composed of one supplier and the chain retail enterprises with two retailers.In random demand,assuming retail's effort levels are inversely proportional to false failure return rate and retailer transshipment are considered.A expected return model is presented to describe this problem. By comparing the order quantities of retails of centralized decision making system and distributed system,as well as the profits of the parties to make sure retailer's optimal quantities and effort levels.Improved differentiated buyback contract is proposed.Finally,Analysis of examples show that improved differentiated buyback contract can achieve supply chain coordination when parameters satisfy 74.06 ≤ λ ≤ 94.53,81.93 ≤ w ≤ 94.02. The research results of this paper can provide a reference for the supply chain coordination with False Failure Returns and income improvement between both sides of supply chain. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Revenue Sharing Contract Coordination of Supply Chain Considering Risk and Fairness Dual Preferences WANG Yong-ming, YU Xiao-hua, YIN Hong-li 2021, 29 (7):  148-159.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1312 Abstract ( 399 )   PDF (1636KB) ( 292 )   Save Based on the existing literature, the expected utility decision model of suppliers and retailers with dual preference behavior is established. Through the derivation, analysis and solution of the model, the influence mechanism of fairness preference and risk aversion on the decision-making of the behavior subject of the supply chain and the coordination of the whole supply chain are discussed in this paper. Then, the model is verified by numerical analysis. In order to promote the coordinated development of supply chain, a strategy of supply chain quality management based on dual behavior preference is proposed. The research results are as follows:firstly, when both retailers and suppliers have fairness preference and risk aversion, the fairness preference, risk aversion and revenue share of suppliers and retailers must meet certain specific conditions to achieve the coordination of revenue sharing contract. Second, when the retailer's revenue share is larger than that of the supplier, the retailer's optimal order quantity and supply chain system will increase the retailer's fairness preference, reduce or increase the supplier's fairness preference, and reduce or increase the risk aversion of the retailer and supplier. Finally, the influence of the change of market economy parameters on decision making is analyzed. In fact, the decision maker can predict the market trend of the supply chain system based on these conclusions, and adjust relevant parameters in time to maximize the system benefit. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Marketing Strategy Choice and Pricing for Complementary Products in Supply Chain with Heterogeneous Consumers ZHANG Zi-jian, ZHANG Ling-ling 2021, 29 (7):  160-170.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1799 Abstract ( 496 )   PDF (1306KB) ( 364 )   Save Demand disparities are commonly existed among consumers on complementary products. For a product, it may be considered as a complementary one for certain consumers, but it is merely another at the stand of other consumers. By introducing the consumer heterogeneity for complementary product, this paper assumes a market with two manufacturers independently supplying complementary products at the upstream and one retailer selling the two complementary products at the downstream to analyze the marketing strategy and pricing equilibrium of the two-level supply chain. In specific, firstly, the complementary products market is subdivided into two independent consumption segmentation and one co-consumption segmentation. Two corresponding marketing strategies, i.e., the overall market-based strategy and segmentation market-focused strategy, are introduced to the supply chain system. Then, by solving the game model, the equilibrium solutions together with the corresponding existence conditions on two market strategies are obtained, respectively. Thirdly, when consumer heterogeneity is considered, the equilibrium wholesale price and the impacts of the complementary degree to retailing price for two incomplete complementary products are investigated. Fourthly, the influences of the degree of complementary and the ratio of relative utilities of complementary products to the benefits of two suppliers and the retailer are discussed. Finally, the conditions of equilibrium price for the selection of the overall market-based strategy and the segmentation market-focused strategy are revealed and analyzed. Numerical results demonstrate that, if the complementary degree and the ratio of relative utilities of complementary products are small, the overall market-based pricing equilibrium would be reached in the channel. On the contrary, if the complementary degree and the ratio of relative utilities of complementary products are large enough, segmentation market-focused pricing equilibrium is the best strategy. For the latter situation, the retailer would adopt the loss leader pricing strategy (retail price is lower than the supplier's wholesale price) to sell the product with lower relative utility. Findings obtained in this research can help manufacturers and retailers determine the optimal marketing strategy and pricing for complementary product in supply chain. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on Parcel Sorting Optimization Model and Algorithm for Double-layer Automatic Sorting Systems ZHEN Lu, TAN Zhe-yi, XIAO Li-yang, MA Cheng-le 2021, 29 (7):  171-180.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1325 Abstract ( 376 )   PDF (1819KB) ( 192 )   Save In recent years, with the rapid development of e-commerce, sorting orders are characterized by small batches, multiple varieties, short delivery cycles, and high precision requirements, which imposes higher requirements on sorting operations. For the sake of shortening sorting time, reducing sorting costs, and improving the sorting efficiency, logistics enterprises have gradually used double-layer sorting equipment. In this paper, the "component-sorting" is used to improve the utilization rate of pallets. "Component-sorting" refers to the method of sorting scattered single-piece packages according to certain rules and becoming a standardized large sorting unit. According to the definition of "component-sorting", the problem of destination assignment for a double-layer sorting equipment considering the component-sorting is studied and an efficient variable neighbor tabu search algorithm is designed that can solve the problem within a short time. The experimental results show that the efficiency of sorting equipment can be effectively improved by adopting the "component-sorting" and considering destination assignment problem. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Scheduling Optimization of Tractors in the Mainline/Subline Transport Network with Midway Trailer-uncoupling YANG Zhen-hua, JIN Zhi-hong 2021, 29 (7):  181-191.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1201 Abstract ( 260 )   PDF (1624KB) ( 107 )   Save In the tractor-and-semitrailer transportation, a tractor does not need to wait for its trailer's cargo handling, therefore, the tractor-and-semitrailer transportation has high efficiency, and has seen gradually application in express transportation enterprises. This study is based on a mainline/subline transport network, and a new mode is proposed which is "midway trailer-uncoupling". Additionally, mainline tasks and subline tasks can be conducted by the same tractor. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer programming and a hybrid simulated annealing algorithm is adopted to solve it. In the algorithm, the initial feasible solution is constructed according to the principle of minimizing the distance between two consecutive tasks, and four kinds of neighborhood search methods are used to improve the diversity of solutions. Under the two kinds of simulation scenarios, changing the proportion of mainline/subline tasks and changing the total number of tasks, the total cost of our tractor-and-semitrailer transportation mode is compared with those of the other two modes in a total of 19 numerical examples. The other two modes refer to "no midway trailer-uncoupling, mainline tasks and subline tasks can be conducted by the same tractor" and "no midway trailer-uncoupling, mainline tasks and subline tasks must be separately conducted by different tractors". The results show that our mode is the optimal in all the numerical examples. As for the comparison of the other two modes, 1) when the total number of tasks changes, the mode "no midway trailer-uncoupling, mainline tasks and subline tasks can be conducted by the same tractor" is always superior to the other mode, "no midway trailer-uncoupling, mainline tasks and subline tasks must be separately conducted by different tractors"; 2) when the proportion of mainline/subline tasks changes, the former mode is more suitable for the cases with smaller proportion of subline tasks, the latter mode is just the opposite. The results of the numerical examples verify the validity of the mathematical model as well as the obvious advantage and robustness of our mode, and provide decision support for express transportation enterprises' actual operation. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on Robust Optimization Problem of Pump Layout Based on Emergency Response Timeliness of Coal Mine Water Inrush Accident LI Jia-lian, CHI Hong 2021, 29 (7):  192-201.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2021.07.018 Abstract ( 306 )   PDF (2371KB) ( 152 )   Save This research problem is abstracted in the process that the research team has cooperated with some practical departments for many years to solve practical problems. The influence of the arrival time and quantity of emergency resources on the emergency response timeliness is studied in the coal mine water inrush accident, and then the pump layout problem is studied based on timeliness. Mechanism analysis and simulation methods, robust optimization method, branch and bound algorithm are mainly used. The basic ideas are as follows:(1) qualitative analysis on the occurrence, development and emergency response mechanism of coal mine water inrush accident is considered, which lays the foundation for the follow-up quantitative research; (2) the concepts of three opportunity time windows (drainage, oxygen and food supply) are put forward, and then their calculation methods are given on. (3) The influence of time and quantity of water pump, oxygen supply equipment, and food arriving in batches on three opportunity time windows is studied. The calculation methods of the possible rescue time, the lowest oxygen content in the trapped position, the food shortage of the trapped miners, and emergency response timeliness are comprehensively considered; (4) on the premise of given resource layouts required for oxygen and food supply, the objective function and constraint conditions of pump layout are designed, and the robust optimization model of pump layout is established. Through the introduction of the concept of opportunity time window and the idea of branch and bound algorithm, the discrimination criterion for infeasible solution of the pump layout is given, and then the optimal selection algorithm is designed; (5) on the basis of some typical cases of coal mine inrush accidents, a calculation example is constructed to verify the effectiveness of the robust optimization model of pump layout. The results of the calculation example show that more pumps need to be arranged in the vicinity of the mine with high inrush speed, and less pumps can be arranged in the vicinity of the mine with low inrush speed. The results of the calculation example are consistent with the qualitative knowledge, which shows that the model is practical and effective. Based on the typical cases of coal mine inrush accidents in Chinese history, the case data are formed through certain simplification and hypothesis. Pump layout is studied from the perspective of response effect, which provides a new way for the study of emergency resource layout to be closer to the actual situation. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Free or Subscription? Exploring the Optimal Online Content Revenue Model with Considering Advertisement Quality ZHOU Yan-ju, SHEN Zhen, YING Ren-ren 2021, 29 (7):  202-213.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.0517 Abstract ( 357 )   PDF (954KB) ( 160 )   Save Exploring revenue model for online content providers is always a key theoretical and practical issue. However, the impacts of content quality or advertisement quality are ignored in most existing decision models. Thus, how to choice the optimal revenue model between free model and subscription model for the online content provider is analyzed in this paper, who has an online content item and an advertiser aiming to embed an native advertisement in this content. But the advertiser may have private advertisement quality information. To solve it, user stickiness, advertisement quality and its asymmetric information are taken into account, and applies principal-agent theory to establish different game models for the provider adopting free model and subscription model, respectively, in information complete, information asymmetry as well as ad-free cases. Through making the optimal decisions on content quality and/or advertising price, and designing contracts to motivate the advertiser to tell the truth, all equilibrium results are achieved and analyzed. It is indicated that:(1) Advertisement especially high-quality advertisement can be employed to realize the system's Pareto improvement and make subscription model more available. (2)The benefits the provider and social welfare get from advertising will be reduced by advertisement information asymmetry. And the higher quality an advertisement is, the more valuable its quality information for the provider. (3) Subscription model doesn't always perform better than free model. Under same conditions, it is wise for an online content provider to provide fewer but better subscription content, or make more extensive and general free content to make corresponding revenue model more profitable. Those findings can provide certain decision supports and implications for the online content provider's revenue model selection and related decisions in reality. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Two-Stage Supply Chain Coordination Based on Revenue Sharing Contract under Carbon Cap-and-Trade CUI Chun-yue, ZHANG Ling-rong, YANG Zi-fan, WANG Jian 2021, 29 (7):  214-226.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1732 Abstract ( 365 )   PDF (960KB) ( 238 )   Save China has launched a national carbon emission trading market to fulfill the emission reduction commitments of the Paris agreement in 2017,carbon quota allocation refers to the eu benchmark method and the historical intensity reduction method. Because the method of historical intensity reduction allocates carbon quotas and changes with time and output and the cost, price and other parameters will change accordingly, so realizing the two-stage supply chain coordination becomes an inevitable problem for manufacturers. Considering a secondary supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer, the whole sales cycle is divided into two stages. In the first stage, if the order quantity of the product fails to meet the demand, the supply will be partially delayed, and the remaining inventory will be sold in the second stage; in the second stage, market competition, technical update and other factors make the production cost and sales price drop. When the product is out of stock at the end of the period, the retailer will bear the loss of opportunity cost caused by the lack of goods. If there is residual inventory, it will be cleared by residual value. At the same time, affected by the historical intensity reduction method of carbon quota allocation, the carbon emission quota of the two stages is different, and the carbon quota of unit product of the second stage continues to decrease on the basis of the first stage. Manufacturers' carbon emissions in the production process are limited by the government's carbon quota. In addition to meeting the standards through carbon emission reduction input, manufacturers can also buy or sell carbon emissions in the carbon quota trading market.By building a two-stage centralized decision-making system model and a decentralized decision-making system model under revenue sharing contract, the optimal order quantity decision and optimal carbon emission reduction decision of supply chain under carbon quota trading policy are analyzed. The validity of the conclusion is verified by an example analysis based on the data of a smartphone retailer purchasing a mobile phone from a mobile phone manufacturer S. It is proved that the revenue sharing contract can achieve two-stage supply chain coordination by adjusting the retailer's order quantity to reach the optimal order quantity under the centralized decision. Setting lower revenue sharing contract parameters will be more conducive to manufacturers to reduce wholesale prices and take the initiative in carbon reduction. It is found that the historical intensity reduction method is conducive to stimulating enterprises to reduce emissions actively. The greater the reduction of the carbon allowance by the government, the more favorable the enterprise will reduce emissions. On the basis of ensuring the benefits of the supply chain, as much as possible in the early stage of emission reduction input; the lower income sharing ratio between enterprises is more conducive to corporate emission reduction. In previous studies of two-stage supply chain coordination modeling, the variability of carbon quota parameters was not included in the supply chain coordination modeling. In the research of supply chain coordination under the carbon quota trading policy, the cost sharing of emission reduction is still the main task. A few scholars adopted the revenue-sharing contract widely used in enterprise practice, but set the sales price, production cost and other parameters as fixed values, and did not consider that the government carbon quota would be reduced in a ladder-like manner with time and policy changes. In this paper, the above points are taken into account, which can be used for reference in the same type of research. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Will Data Advantages Increase Platform Companies' Pricing?——Model Derivation and Theoretical Analysis JING Wen-jun 2021, 29 (7):  227-237.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2019.0819 Abstract ( 454 )   PDF (1109KB) ( 244 )   Save In the era of digital economy, data has become an important production factor of platform enterprises, which has profoundly affected the market behavior of platform companies including pricing behavior.Whether the accumulation of data will generate a "data monopoly" phenomenon and promote the price increase of platform enterprises has become an important practical and academic issue.In view of this, from the theoretical point of view, whether the data advantage will cause the company to raise prices under the monopolistic and differentiated competition scenarios is analyzed.In the analysis of the monopoly scenario, based on the two-sidedmarket model proposed by Armstrong in 2006, the parameters reflecting the data accumulation are constructed and the optimal pricing function is solved, then how the data affects the pricing of monopoly platform enterprises is clarified. In the analysis of differentiated competition scenarios, the concept of "preference cost" is introduced and the Hotelling model is improved to derive the effect of data on the pricing of different types of platform enterprises.The main research results show that:(1) Compared with traditional monopolistic platform enterprises, monopolistic platform enterprises with data advantages will reduce the price of their products or services;(2) Under the conditions of differentiated competition, the enterprises which to meet users' marginalization or relatively low-level demand, data accumulation will reduce pricing, while for enterprises offering mainstream or relatively high-level products or services, data accumulation will increase pricing;(3)For a marginalized or low-end market Demand increases with the increase of data; for a mainstream or higher-end market, demand decreases with the increase of data; (4)In a differentiated competitive environment, data accumulation helps to improve platform enterprise profits.Further, this paper discusses the relationship between data advantage and price discrimination, long tail effect, and monopoly characteristics.First of all, the data advantage helps the monopolistic enterprise to achieve complete price discrimination and the new price discrimination scenarios may emergence.Secondly, the data helps enterprises identify their own characteristics, and further makes the platform market divided into "mainstream level" and "long tail level".At last, the data has the effect of weakening the market power and can reflect a more positive welfare effect.On the other hand, it it also proposed that there are hidden concerns about data diversification and transaction behavior of enterprises. Diversified data helps enterprises to grasp user preferences more accurately, and implement more covert and extensive price discrimination to occupy consumer surplus. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Measuring Input-specific Technical Efficiency Based on Input Distance Function Yang Hao-ran 2021, 29 (7):  238-248.  doi: 10.16381/j.cnki.issn1003-207x.2018.1349 Abstract ( 446 )   PDF (1175KB) ( 154 )   Save Due to incomplete information about production technology, firms may use some inputs more efficiently than others, which makes the radial technical efficiency measurement inappropriate. Different approaches have been proposed to reconcile the non-radial nature of technical efficiency and the measurement methodologies. The revenue function based approach proposed by Kumbhakar and Lai (2016) can be applied to measure output-specific technical efficiency. With minor modification, the framework proposed by Kumbhakar and Lai (2016) can be extended to profit function to measure input-specific technical efficiency (ISTE). This approach has limitation in empirical research in that reliable data on input and output prices are not always available. The directional distance function approach can also be used to measure ISTE (Färe and Primont, 1995). However, it requires to specify the "directions" toward which inputs can be contracted before data analysis was applied, yet this kind of information is unavailable a priori. Aparicio et al. (2017) proposed a method to measure ISTE based on the principle of least action and the corresponding DEA method was developed to estimate ISTE. It is well known that DEA method is vulnerable to extreme values and it is difficult to distinguish if the distinction between technical efficiency of each input is real or just due to statistical noise. In this paper a new method is proposed to measure input-specific technical efficiency (ISTE) based on input distance function which requires no price information and no need to specify the "direction" a priori. Let xj denote the quantity of input j(j=1,…,K) used in production, y denote output. Let TEj=exp(-ηj); (0<ηj<∞) represents technical efficiency level of input j. Therefore, xj0=xj·TEj gives optimal level of input j while keeping the quantity of output y unchanged. Let X0=(x10,…,xK0) be the optimal input vector. Apparent for input distance function we can get: D(Y,X0)=supλ{λ:(X0/λ,Y)∈T}=1                                                                                                                                                                                  (1) Suppose Cobb-Douglas function can be used to approximate the distance function, from (1) we get: $0 = {\alpha _0} + \sum\limits_{j = 1}^K {{\alpha _j}\ln ({x_j} \cdot T{E_j})} + \sum\limits_{m = 1}^M {{\beta _m}} \ln {y_m} $                                                                                                                                                     (2) where α and β are unknown parameters. By using the homogenous condition of input distance function, we get the estimable form as follows: $ - \ln {x_k} = {\alpha _0} + \sum\limits_{j = 1}^{K - 1} {{\alpha _j}\ln ({x_j}/{x_K})} + \sum\limits_{m = 1}^M {{\beta _m}} \ln {y_m} + \varepsilon - \sum\limits_{j = 1}^K {{\alpha _j}{\eta _j}} $                                                                                                                  (3) where ε is the stochastic error term. In estimation, a two steps procedure is developed in the context of Bayesian econometrics:in the first step, the parameters of input distance function are estimated consistently; then in the second step, technical efficiency of each inputs are estimated based on the given estimated parameters. Monte Carlo simulation shows that this "two steps" approach can generate much faster convergence in Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) inference and accurate estimation of ISTE compare to direct Bayesian estimation of ISTE model (3). Then this method is applied to the data of Industrial Enterprise Survey by Peking University to evaluate the ISTE of labor and capital. This survey covers the period of 2000 to 2005. However, it is an unbalanced panel data set. Output is measured by revenue of each firm. To alleviate the fluctuation of revenue caused by output price change, the average revenue of each firm in this period is used as a measure of output value. Finally a cross sectional data with 1178 firms are gotten from 36 different industries. The results show that, firms are using capital efficiently and indifferently. While technical efficiency of labor is relatively low and disperse among firms in the sample. On average, technical efficiency of labor is 77%, in other words, labor can be saved by 23% while keeping output and capital use unchanged. The illustration shows that the approach developed in this study can identify the major sources of technical inefficiency, therefore can facilitate to develop strategies to improve efficiency in production. References | Related Articles | Metrics