Yazar "Kara, Ahmet" seçeneğine göre listele
Listeleniyor 1 - 14 / 14
Sayfa Başına Sonuç
Sıralama seçenekleri
Öğe Budget-performance simulations: a pedagogical example and a research hypothesis(İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi, 2021) Kara, AhmetPurpose: This paper has two main purposes, the first of which is to present a simple pedagogical example of budget-performance simulations that can be used for instructional purposes. The second purpose is to formulate a research hypothesis about the effects, on the overall performance, of (i) the overall level of physical and academic-managerial human capital investments and (ii) the allocation of resources between physical capital and academic-managerial human capital. Method: We have employed a system dynamics method so as to construct a simplified setup (model) where some pedagogically illustrative components of the budget are specified and linked to an elementarily exemplified performance function. We have then simulated the investment-based performance trajectories to demonstrate the findings of the paper. We have shown how to undertake a policy-based optimization as well. The method (system dynamics) we have chosen is suitable for the modeling of complexly-interwoven optimization and simulation processes. Findings: Through simulation and policy-based performance optimization exercises, we have demonstrated that the physical and academic-managerial capital investments matter and there exists an optimal allocation of resources that maximizes the university performance. Originality: There is a need for a comprehensive and in-depth examination/inquiry of the performance optimization and simulation processes associated with the higher education institutions. This article represents a modest contribution to such an inquiry.Öğe DYNAMICS OF PERFORMANCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: AN APPLIED STOCHASTIC MODEL AND A CASE STUDY(Hacettepe Univ, Fac Sci, 2013) Kara, AhmetThe purpose of this paper is to develop a stochastic-dynamic model of performance and technology in education sector and bring into light the presence, in a particular subset of the Turkish higher education sector, of stochastically-evolving equilibria moving towards a low performance trap over time. The dynamics of the movement in question hinges, in part, on two factors, namely, (1) the productivity growth and (2) student population growth. We formulate a stochastically-driven, technology-based policy option that could help the sector to escape the trap, moving the sector towards high performance equilibria. The proposed policy option illustrates that technological transformation in educational practices could solve a structural problem (a low performance trap) in developing-country education sectors.Öğe Dynamics of performance and technology in higher education: An applied stochastic model and a case study(2013) Kara, AhmetThe purpose of this paper is to develop a stochastic-dynamic model of performance and technology in education sector and bring into light the presence, in a particular subset of the Turkish higher education sector, of stochastically-evolving equilibria moving towards a low per- formance trap over time. The dynamics of the movement in question hinges, in part, on two factors, namely, (1) the productivity growth and (2) student population growth. We formulate a stochastically-driven, technology-based policy option that could help the sector to escape the trap, moving the sector towards high performance equilibria. The proposed policy option illustrates that technological transformation in educational practices could solve a structural problem (a low perfor- mance trap) in developing-country education sectors.Öğe Educational technology in economics instruction(Elsevier Science Bv, 2015) Kara, Ahmet; Iaman, A; Eskicumali, AIn this paper, we will show, in the context of a "market equilibria" example, how the use of educational technology associated with system dynamics makes it possible for instructors to teach undergraduate students topics of economic structures/processes involving nonlinearity, stochasticity, non-differentiability and discontinuity. We present three submodels/subcases associated with the example. In the first model, we have continuous and continuously differentiable linear demand and nonlinear supply functions for a good. Each function involves a stochastic term. In the second model, we do not have a continuous and continuously differentiable demand function but only a demand schedule. The supply function is a continuous nonlinear function of price. In the third model, we have interrelated markets for two goods with discontinuous stochastic demand and nonlinear stochastic supply functions. In all cases, we use system dynamics to find, in a very simple and user-friendly manner, the dynamic equilibrium paths and hence dynamic equilibria in the markets in question.Öğe Escaping mediocre-quality, low-productivity, low-performance traps at universities in developing countries: A human capital-based structural equation model with system-dynamics simulations(Edam, 2018) Kara, AhmetThis paper develops a human capital-based structural equation model to analyze the mediocre-quality, low-productivity, and low-performance levels characterizing large subsets of universities in developing countries. Using a structural equation model, we have first specified one particular way in which overall university performance might be related to human capital, social capital, and physical capital, which are in turn related to various indicators, including teaching-quality and research-productivity levels. The structural equation-based picture of these levels is then dynamically extended to obtain their trajectories over time. We have collected data to estimate the parameters of the human capital-based structural equation model, which then serves as a basis for the system dynamics simulations of teaching quality, research productivity, and overall performance over time. We have developed an optimally-formulated subsidy/reinvestment policy that helps create a self-reproducing process of quality/productivity/performance improvements within the university system. The policy is shown to facilitate these improvements, helping universities escape the mediocre-quality, low-productivity, low-performance traps that plague many universities in developing countries. © 2018 EDAM.Öğe An exploratory note on the efficient university management(İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi, 2020) Kara, AhmetThis note extends some of the points developed in Kara (2018, 2019) so as to explore new avenues for an efficient university management. The particular avenues we will explore center around certain processes that we think are fundamental, namely the processes of accumulation, concentration and deepening of knowledge, experience, skills/capabilities and expertise that facilitate or give rise to scientific output. One can suggest policies that could influence those processes and help the university to achieve its objectives. Such policies could be derived through properly formulated and solved optimization problems involving objective functions and constraints of the university. The objective functions to be formulated should properly take into account the possible paths in the world of science and realistically reflect the university’s short and long term target and preferences. We will make some suggestions for constructing objective functions incorporating the objectives of the university.Öğe A low quality-high cost-low satisfaction trap in public health care: A model and an efficiency-quality-welfare improving stochastic resolution(2013) Kara, AhmetThis paper develops an applied stochastic model of public health care and shows that the public health care sector in Turkey is plagued by a low quality-high cost-low satisfaction trap which has been persistent over time. The values in question are shown to be stochastically stable. We formulate an efficiency-quality-welfare improving stochastic policy rule, which helps the sector to reach a selected target and which stabilizes quality, cost and welfare around that target. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.Öğe Simulation-Based Decision-Support Model and Exercises for Universities(İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi, 2014) Kara, AhmetThis paper presents a system dynamics-based decision-support model for universities so as to simulate the dynamic trajectory of key decision variables, namely teaching performance and research performance, and exemplify the design of optimal policies that enable universities to achieve certain desired objectives. The paper constructs a simple dynamic-stochastic model with properly specified adjustment dynamics and employs a system dynamics method to simulate the trajectories in question and to optimize the relevant parameter values. Examples presented in the paper could easily be extended to analyze the effects of a variety of factors, such as academic capital, physical capital or income, on teaching performance and research performance. The model could be generalized to take into account the possible and potentially highly complex interrelations among different fields.Öğe Simulations of information technology-induced teaching performance in cross-disciplinary settings: a model and an application(Elsevier Science Bv, 2017) Kara, Ahmet; Soriano, E; Sleeter, C; Casanova, MAThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamic trajectory of teaching performance in cross-disciplinary settings. We take into account the effects of information technology as well as interactions among different disciplines/subjects so as to theorize about possible ways to improve teaching performance. It turns out that, depending on the extent of the effectiveness of information technology and the degree of complementarities among the subjects taught, teaching performance could have different trajectories over time. Contingent upon the amount of resources devoted to teaching, university administrators could choose a path among different trajectories, a path that is most compatible with their institutional objectives. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.Öğe Simulations of Optimal Human Capital and Total Factor Productivity in Universities(2023) Kara, AhmetIn this paper, we develop models of university capital in disaggregated and aggregated forms and simulate the trajectories of human/ non-human capital and total factor productivity in universities. The capital employed by a representative university is decomposed into two composite human capital and non-human capital dimensions, each of which is further disaggregated into some sub-dimensions. We first present a sketch of a disaggregated model for illustrative purposes and then develop an aggregated model for the simulation of the key variables in the system. We incorporate an investment support (subsidy) parameter into the model, the optimal value of which is computationally determined. Based on the optimal value of this decision variable, the trajectories of human/non-human capital and total factor productivity are obtained. Though the exercise constructed in the paper is a particular or limited one, the model is highly suitable for generalized exercises with multiple decision variables and multidimensional objective functions capturing a rich variety of different possibilities in real life. The optimality and simulation exercises of this kind could help the university managers to design optimal decision systems to achieve the university objectives in a best possible manner in dynamic settings.Öğe Simulations of research performance in cross-disciplinary contexts: a model and an application(İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi, 2017) Kara, AhmetThe purpose of this paper is to construct a model of research performance, based on a demand-and-supply set-up, in a cross-disciplinary context and simulate the trajectory of research performances. We take into account the effects of human capital and research technology as well as interactions among different disciplines/subjects so as to theorize about possible shapes of these trajectories. It turns out that, depending on the levels of human capital and technology, research performances could have different trajectories over time. Contingent upon the priority-driven amount of resources devoted to research, university administrators could choose a path among different trajectories, a path that is most compatible with their institutional objectives.Öğe Simulations of Technology-induced and Crisis-led Stochastic and Chaotic Fluctuations in Higher Education Processes: A Model and a Case Study for Performance and Expected Employment(2015) Kara, AhmetThis paper presents a simple model of the provision of higher educational services that considers and exemplifies nonlinear, stochastic, and potentially chaotic processes. I use the methods of system dynamics to simulate these processes in the context of a particular sociologically interesting case, namely that of the Turkish higher education sector during the recent global economic crisis. I undertake simulations for two variables, namely for the quality-adjusted performance and the technology-induced expected employment. Simulations for the quality-adjusted performance display stochastic fluctuations around a modestly rising deterministic trend. Chaotic performance trajectories are shown to be possible for certain parameter values; however, given the historical experience and observed current tendencies in higher education in Turkey, they appear to be highly unlikely. Simulations for expected employment indicate that increases in the levels of technology utilization in education could lead to improved perceptions of employment prospects and potentially help to increase the level of employment in the economyÖğe Stabilizing instability-suboptimality-and-chaos-pronefluctuations at crisis junctures: Stochastic possibilitiesfor crisis management(Wiley, 2021) Kara, AhmetThere is a rich array of ways in which unstable, suboptimal and chaos-prone fluc-tuations could appear at crisis junctures. The richness of the patterns associatedwith such fluctuation s presents considerable challenges to the theory of crises aswell as the policies targeting various tendencies induced by crises. Dealing withcomplexly interwoven unstable , suboptimal and potentially chaotic tendencies isnot an easy task, which may require new combinations of methods analysing thecausal connections and feedback relations embedded in the web of relations char-acterizing the crisis-junctures. In this paper, we develop an illustrative dynamicmodel that takes into account such causally connected feedback relations so as toconstruct and simulate stochastic policy options, which can influence and helpstabilize unstable, suboptimal and chaotic trajectories of exchange rates at finan-cial crisis junctures. For reasons of convenience and practical relevance, we exem-plified such policies using taxes. One of the constructed examples makes use astochastic taxing policy to influence the coefficient of adjustment, which influ-ences the amount of adjustments and hence fluctuations in the market. We incor-porate a software-based optimization setup into the simulation model to find theoptimal values of the policy parameter to be used for the purpose of simulatingthe trajectories of the exchange rates. It turns out that the suggested policies couldinfluence/reduce the fluctuations in the market and hence help stabilize unstableorchaoticexchangeratetrajectories.Thesecondexampleinthepaperiscon-cerned with an empirical case relating to a particular financial crisis juncture ofTurkey during May–November 2018.Öğe Technology and Job Competence in the Turkish Labor Markets: A Model and Simulations(Elsevier Science Bv, 2012) Kara, Ahmet; Zaim, Selim; Özsahin, Mehtap; Zehir, CemalThis paper presents system dynamics simulations of the effects of technology on the level of job competence in a subset of the Turkish labor markets. Through deterministic and stochastic simulations, we demonstrate the possibility of considerable technology-induced improvements in the level of job competence. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 8th International Strategic Management Conference
