Search results for "Management information systems"
showing 10 items of 291 documents
Contractual Satisfaction: The Polish and Tanzanian Perspectives
2013
Purpose: Interfirm satisfaction has been studied at the aggregate level, which has limited use in terms of understanding specific dimensions. Contractual satisfaction relates to the specific level of analyzing interfirm satisfaction. This study contributes towards understanding contractual satisfaction and the contextual nature of the concept. To achieve the latter, two heterogeneous emerging markets were used (Poland and Tanzania). Methodology: The study was conducted in Poland and Tanzania, focusing on manufacturing firms. The sample included 201 Polish firms and 240 Tanzanian firms. Findings: The major findings suggest that ex ante costs and ex post specifications have a significant posi…
Activity of the Elderly in an Eight-Week Case Study
2015
This study explores the engagement of the elderly with a new health-enhancing mobile-optimised web-service: An eight-week case study was carried out. Participants of the study were elderly people: 45 females and 19 males with the average age of 72.3 (SD 5.2) years. Their baseline information and communication technology experiences were evaluated, the data of using each service component was saved to a server and the usability of the service was evaluated. The majority of the users remained active throughout the study. The most frequently used components in the study were memory puzzles and physical exercise. The usability of the components was correlated with the age of the participants. T…
Identifying the Ideal Types of Online Shoppers : A Qualitative Analysis of Online Shopping
2020
The tremendous increase in online shopping has created a growing demand to understand online shopping behavior. This study contributes to this understanding by identifying ideal types among online shoppers. An ideal type is an analytical construct used to ascertain similarities and deviations to concrete cases in an individual phenomenon. Theoretically, the study draws from different perspectives to create a multifaceted view of online shoppers. The purpose is not to categorize online shoppers under a specific category but rather to help understand different typically occurring online shopping behaviors. Through thematic analysis of the data from 31 participants, this study presents five id…
Scatter tabu search for multiobjective clustering problems
2011
We propose a hybrid heuristic procedure based on scatter search and tabu search for the problem of clustering objects to optimize multiple criteria. Our goal is to search for good approximations of the efficient frontier for this class of problems and provide a means for improving decision making in multiple application areas. Our procedure can be viewed as an extension of SSPMO (a scatter search application to nonlinear multiobjective optimization) to which we add new elements and strategies specially suited for combinatorial optimization problems. Clustering problems have been the subject of numerous studies; however, most of the work has focused on single-objective problems. Clustering u…
The quality of websites and their impact on economic performance: The case of nurseries and gardening companies in the Italian 'Mezzogiorno' regions
2014
The aim of this paper is to examine the quality of websites and the entrepreneurial perception of the importance of the website to improve the business performance in nurseries and gardening companies adopting web-marketing strategies. On this purpose, the paper firstly analyses which structural features enable a potential website to be labelled as 'good'; the awareness of these aspects is pivotal to define effective web-marketing solutions. Secondly, it examines whether the plant nursery entrepreneurs perceive the company website as a tool of additional sales able to increase the firm turnover. The results show that the websites are well framed and with a well-groomed design, but lacking i…
Spatial mapping of price competition using logit-type market share models and store-level scanner-data
2009
This paper proposes a methodology to obtain reliable spatial maps of price competition using store-level scanner data. Specifically, a procedure to obtain a symmetric matrix of similarities between brands considering their substitutability depending on price variations is proposed. The matrix is derived from a market response model where price cross-effects are split into two components. The first component accounts for the fact that price variation in one brand can have different effects to price variation in other brands (ie j → j′≠j′ → j). The second component accounts for the fact that the price of each brand can have different effects across competing brands (ie j → j′≠j → j ″). The ma…
Mobile Application Diffusion and Success: An Interpretative Approach to Influential Factors
2018
The rapid evolution of mobile computing technology has been attributed to the increasing capitalizing by companies on this innovative business medium. The result of conformity between technology advancement and market demand increment for mobility has led to the development of different categories of mobile businesses in recent years. This research reviews the previous related literature to the subject and by deploying meta-synthesis as a systematic quantitative method; a generic model covering important factors contributing to mobile application diffusion is presented. The proposed comprehensive model consists of users' specifications, technical aspects and contextual factors in the first …
Tabu search with strategic oscillation for the maximally diverse grouping problem
2013
We propose new heuristic procedures for the maximally diverse grouping problem (MDGP). This NP-hard problem consists of forming maximally diverse groups—of equal or different size—from a given set of elements. The most general formulation, which we address, allows for the size of each group to fall within specified limits. The MDGP has applications in academics, such as creating diverse teams of students, or in training settings where it may be desired to create groups that are as diverse as possible. Search mechanisms, based on the tabu search methodology, are developed for the MDGP, including a strategic oscillation that enables search paths to cross a feasibility boundary. We evaluate co…
On the generalized directed rural postman problem
2014
The generalized directed rural postman problem (GDRPP) is a generic type of arc routing problem. In the present paper, it is described how many types of practically relevant single-vehicle routing problems can be modelled as GDRPPs. This demonstrates the versatility of the GDRPP and its importance as a unified model for postman problems. In addition, an exact and a heuristic solution method are presented. Computational experiments using two large sets of benchmark instances are performed. The results show high solution quality and thus demonstrate the practical usefulness of the approach.
GRASP with path relinking for the orienteering problem
2014
In this paper, we address an optimization problem resulting from the combination of the well-known travelling salesman and knapsack problems. In particular, we target the orienteering problem, originated in the context of sport, which consists of maximizing the total score associated with the vertices visited in a path within the available time. The problem, also known as the selective travelling salesman problem, is NP-hard and can be formulated as an integer linear program. Since the 1980s, several solution methods for this problem have been developed and applied to a variety of fields, particularly in routing and tourism. We propose a heuristic method—based on the Greedy Randomized Adapt…