AMELIA CARR, Bowling Green State University
Email: ascarr@bgsu.edu
SENTHIL KUMAR MUTHUSAMY, Bowling Green State University - Department of Management
Email: smuthu@cba.bgsu.edu

This paper is a study of the coordination capability between operations and other functional areas within the firm. The paper examines a number of relationships with respect to cross-functional coordination and performance. Using a random sample of 231 firms, five hypotheses are tested. Structural equation modelling is used to test the relationships depicted in the research model. The results indicate that firms can benefit from the cross-functional coordination between operations, marketing, engineering and purchasing.

PAUL S. LOWENGRUB, affiliation not provided to SSRN
SPENCER YANG, affiliation not provided to SSRN
Email: spencer.yang@bateswhite.com

Traditional energy planning in Europe and the United States focuses on finding the least-cost generating alternative. This approach worked sufficiently well in a technological era marked by relative cost certainty, low rates of technological progress, technologically homogenous generating alternatives, and stable energy prices. However, today's electricity planner faces a diverse range of resource options and a dynamic, complex, and uncertain future. Attempting to identify least-cost alternatives in this dynamic and uncertain environment is virtually impossible. As a result, more appropriate techniques are required to find strategies that remain economical under a variety of uncertain future outcomes.

Given the uncertain environment, it makes sense to shift electricity planning from its current emphasis on identifying the least-cost technologies to the evaluation of alternative electricity generating portfolios and strategies. The techniques for doing this are rooted in modern finance theory - in particular mean-variance portfolio theory. The mean-variance portfolio analysis proposed in this report exemplifies how portfolio costs and risks can be examined and incorporated into policy decisions about future generating resources.

This paper applies portfolio-theory optimization concepts from the field of finance to produce an expository evaluation of the multiple regions in the United States and Europe. Although the results are expository, they help show how today's energy planners can assess the potential changes to a portfolio's risks and costs that result from adding renewable resources (such as wind, hydro, and biomass) that have their own individual risk and cost profiles. The resulting risks and costs of alternative combinations of assets will be quantified, and this allows those portfolios that provide the best combinations of costs and risks to be identified as efficient frontier. Conversely, for any given level of cost, there is an associated minimum-risk portfolio. Portfolio analysis allows for the consideration of risk preferences when choosing among portfolios, as well as for the examination of the trade-offs among various risks and costs.

DAVID A. BRAY, Emory University - Department of Decision & Information Analysis
Email: dbray@bus.emory.edu
JERRY MECHLING, Harvard University - John F. Kennedy School of Government
Email: jerry_mechling@lnwprogram.org
BENN KONSYNSKI, Emory University - Goizueta Business School
Email: Benn_Konsynski@bus.emory.edu
HOLLI SEMETKO, Emory University
Email: holli.semetko@emory.edu

Within the next few pages, we outline how the U.S. President might employ novel arrangements of human and technology elements to produce improved government efforts involving the collective insights of all government works to: (1) better serve the public, (2) protect our country, and (3) generate innovative solutions that both address present day problems and produce a better future for us all. We seek to discuss insights into collective intelligence in large organizations - which, for the most part, has not been discussed with regard to the U.S. government - and translate the themes of these books to improve the Executive Branch.