Threshold incentives over multiple periods and the sales hockey stick phenomenon

In this article, we study threshold‐based sales‐force incentives and their impact on a dealer's optimal effort. A phenomenon, observed in practice, is that the dealer exerts a large effort toward the end of the incentive period to boost sales and reach the threshold to make additional profits. In the literature, the resulting last‐period sales spike is sometimes called the hockey stick phenomenon (HSP). In this article, we show that the manufacturer's choice of the incentive parameters and the underlying demand uncertainty affect the dealer's optimal effort choice. This results in the sales HSP over multiple time periods even when there is a cost associated with waiting. We then show that, by linking the threshold to a correlated market signal, the HSP can be regulated. We also characterize the variance of the total sales across all the periods and demonstrate conditions under the sales variance can be reduced. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2010     

Recent advances in catalytic combustion of AP-based composite solid propellants

Composite solid propellants (CSPs) have widely been used as main energy source for propelling the rockets in both space and military applications. Internal ballistic parameters of rockets like characteristic exhaust velocity, specific impulse, thrust, burning rate etc., are measured to assess and control the performance of rocket motors. The burn rate of solid propellants has been considered as most vital parameter for design of solid rocket motors to meet specific mission requirements. The burning rate of solid propellants can be tailored by using different constituents, extent of oxidizer loading and its particle size and more commonly by incorporating suitable combustion catalysts. Various metal oxides (MOs), complexes, metal powders and metal alloys have shown positive catalytic behaviour during the com-bustion of CSPs. These are usually solid-state catalysts that play multiple roles in combustion of CSPs such as reduction in activation energy, enhancement of rate of reaction, modification of sequences in reaction-phase, influence on condensed-phase combustion and participation in combustion process in gas-phase reactions. The application of nanoscale catalysts in CSPs has increased considerably in recent past due to their superior catalytic properties as compared to their bulk-sized counterparts. A large surface-to-volume ratio and quantum size effect of nanocatalysts are considered to be plausible reasons for improving the combustion characteristics of propellants. Several efforts have been made to produce nanoscale combustion catalysts for advanced propellant formulations to improve their energetics. The work done so far is largely scattered. In this review, an effort has been made to introduce various combustion catalysts having at least a metallic entity. Recent developments of nanoscale combustion catalysts with their specific merits are discussed. The combustion chemistry of a typical CSP is briefly discussed for providing a better understanding on role of combustion catalysts in burning rate enhancement. Available information on different types of combustion nanocatalysts is also presented with critical comments.     

Determining optimum reject allowances for deteriorating production systems

Since most manufacturing processes inevitably produce some defective items, it is common practice to produce a quantity larger than the actual order size. This excess is called a reject allowance. In this paper we consider production processes which undergo stochastic deterioration and demonstrate that under appropriate conditions a smallest optimum reject allowance exists and can be easily computed. We also investigate the optimality of periodic process inspections and show that in some cases one can do better by following an (r, R) inspection-processing policy.     

Country Survey I–Military Spending in India 1

After a brief survey of the Indian economy, we survey the supply and demand of military expenditures in India over the last four decades. The causes of military expenditures appear to include regional rivalries and protracted conflicts, but it has proven difficult to delineate these with empirical models. The effects of military spending in India on economic growth appear to be benign, despite much speculation to the contrary. However, the opportunity costs of defence spending are shown to be considerable. We conclude with speculation about the role of debt and debt servicing in retarding future economic growth in India. We also speculate about the potential for the creation of a war economy in India.