Search results for "Operations"
showing 10 items of 1692 documents
Adapting to supply chain 4.0: an explorative study of multinational companies
2019
The aim of this paper is to examine how multinational companies from five industries can adapt to what we call Supply Chain 4.0; the supply chain created as a result of the new digital era brought ...
Age and productivity as determinants of firm survival over the industry life cycle
2017
AbstractThis paper contributes to fill the gap between the literature on the determinants of firm survival and the empirical works on the industry life cycle (ILC). Using a representative sample of Spanish firms with 10 or more employees over the period 1993–2009, the role played by firm age and productivity in firm survival is empirically analysed across three stages of the life cycle of forty-seven 3-digit manufacturing sectors. In the ‘early’ stage of the ILC, firm age is negatively correlated with hazard rates while firm productivity is not. Firm productivity is associated with lower hazard in the ‘mature’ stage of the ILC, when competition is primarily efficiency-driven, while firm age…
Information Influence in Society’s Information Environment : An Empirical Analysis Using the Grounded Theory
2020
This paper investigates information influence in society’s Information Environment. The Grounded Theory approach was used to collect and to analyse the data. A conceptual framework of the thematic categories and item categories was developed on the basis of empirical evidence and past studies that reflect the findings of the field. The most fundamental components in this conceptual framework were six thematic categories (information influence, information operations, cyber operations, psychological operations, kinetic operations, and deception), their item categories, the items themselves, and the interrelationships between the thematic categories. The propositions regarding the thematic ca…
An AHP-based evaluation procedure for Innovative Educational Projects: A face-to-face vs. computer-mediated case study
2008
In this paper a procedure to evaluate proposals for Educational Innovation Projects is proposed. This methodology should help the Institute of Educational Sciences of the Politechnical University of Valencia to choose the best Educational Project, the final aim being to provide the Administration with a stringent evaluation methodology, since the current evaluation methodology was found to be neither sufficiently objective nor systematic. Since in the definition and evaluation of these Educational Projects diverse stakeholders are involved, the process has been approached as a MCDA carried out by a group of experts. Although a whole methodology is proposed, the paper has been focused on the…
Supplier switching decisions
2007
Abstract In order to maximize profit, a buying firm should continuously search for and access sources which offer more favorable prices. While the literature is replete with works on the formation and development of buyer–supplier relationships, there is surprisingly only scarce research on the termination of such relationships and supplier switching. Using the concept of switching costs in a principal-agent framework, we at first analyze whether a firm switches the entire or a partial quantity to an alternative supplier when there is either symmetric or asymmetric information about the alternative supplier’s cost structure. Information asymmetry results in inert supplier switching decision…
A branch and bound algorithm for the matrix bandwidth minimization
2008
In this article, we first review previous exact approaches as well as theoretical contributions for the problem of reducing the bandwidth of a matrix. This problem consists of finding a permutation of the rows and columns of a given matrix which keeps the non-zero elements in a band that is as close as possible to the main diagonal. This NP-complete problem can also be formulated as a labeling of vertices on a graph, where edges are the non-zero elements of the corresponding symmetrical matrix. We propose a new branch and bound algorithm and new expressions for known lower bounds for this problem. Empirical results with a collection of previously reported instances indicate that the propose…
Asset and Liability Modelling for Participating Policies with Guarantee
2008
We study the problem of asset and liability management of participating insurance policies with guarantees. We develop a scenario optimization model for integrative asset and liability management, analyze the tradeoffs in structuring such policies, and study alternative choices in funding them. The nonlinearly constrained optimization model can be linearized through closed form solutions of the dynamic equations. Thus large-scale problems are solved with standard methods. We report on an empirical analysis of policies offered by Italian insurers. The optimized model results are in general agreement with current industry practices. However, some inefficiencies are identified and potential im…
Using PageRank for non-personalized default rankings in dynamic markets
2017
Abstract Default ranking algorithms are used to generate non-personalized product rankings for standard consumers, for example, on landing pages of online stores. Default rankings are created without any information about the consumers’ preferences. This paper proposes using the product centrality ranking algorithm (PCRA), which solves some problems of existing default ranking algorithms: Existing approaches either have low accuracy, because they rely on only one product attribute, or they are unable to estimate ranks for new or updated products, because they use past consumer behavior, such as previous sales or ratings. The PCRA uses the PageRank centrality of products in a product dominat…
Exact algorithms for the multi-compartment vehicle routing problem with flexible compartment sizes
2021
Abstract The multi-compartment vehicle routing problem with flexible compartment sizes is a variant of the classical vehicle routing problem in which customers demand different product types and the vehicle capacity can be separated into different compartments each dedicated to a specific product type. The size of each compartment is not fixed beforehand but the number of compartments is limited. We consider two variants for dividing the vehicle capacity: On the one hand the vehicle capacity can be discretely divided into compartments and on the other hand compartment sizes can be divided continuously. The objective is to minimize the total distance of all vehicle routes such that all custo…
Risky choices in strategic environments: An experimental investigation of a real options game
2019
Managers frequently make decisions under conditions of fundamental uncertainty due the stochastic nature of the outcomes and competitive rivalry. In this study, we experimentally test a theoretical model under fundamental uncertainty and competitive rivalry by designing a sequential interaction game between two players. The first mover can decide either to choose a sure outcome that assigns a risky outcome to the second mover or to pass the decision to the second mover. If the second player gets the chance to decide, she can choose between a sure outcome, conditioned by the assignment of a risky payoff to the first mover, or the sharing of the risky outcome with the first mover. We then int…