A Goal Programming Model for Effective Segment Determination: A Comment and Application

This note presents a model for the effective market segment determination problem. The integer goal programming model was developed for a nonprofit health care organization. The approach is an alternative application of a model presented by McClure and Wells [7]. The model includes input from the organization's clients as well as the organization's decision makers. A distinctive element is the simultaneous development of market segments and the consideration of management, institutional, and resource constraints. The purpose of the model was to aid the decision makers in determining if effective market segments exist which can be reached with information and educational materials concerning infant nutrition and breastfeeding. The model was tested and found to be effective in helping the decision makers segment their clients.     

ON MODELING ADVERTISING PULSING DECISIONS

Based on empirical findings in the literature, sales response to advertising pulsing policy (APP) is modeled mathematically. The implications for APP are discussed. This policy is compared with an alternative policy of uniform expenditures (UAP), a commonly used strategy. The results of the research indicate that substantial savings in advertising budget or an increase in sales revenues may be achieved for a firm using APP.     

A NOTE ON PROCEDURES FOR TESTING THE QUALITY OF A CLUSTERING OF A SET OF OBJECTS

Despite the increased application of cluster analysis in decision sciences, few attempts have been made to derive hypothesis-testing procedures for the evaluation of clustering solutions. In fact, the present paper shows that at least one such attempt failed to specify a meaningful sampling distribution for the test procedure. An alternative index based on the concept of point-biserial correlation is proposed as a possible recovery measure. The index is subsequently used to form the basis of a valid statistical test for the existence of cluster structure.     

Applications and Implementation THE ALLOCATION OF TIME IN ACADEME: RENT-SEEKING IMPLICATIONS

The allocation of time in academe is influenced by artificial constraints such as wage-fund pools and quotas on promotion and tenure. These constraints affect the potential productivity of professors. An analysis of the time-allocation process and of rent-seeking implications for that process suggests various ways to shift supply curves to counteract the effects of these constraints.     

A UNIFIED APPROACH TO THE PRICE-BREAK ECONOMIC ORDER QUANTITY (EOQ) PROBLEM*

In many developing countries where supply is limited, a premium rather than a discounted price is paid for buying in larger amounts. In order for management science/operations research solutions to be relevant to developing economies, such realities need to be explicitly recognized and any decisions evaluated from that perspective. To illustrate this point, a typical inventory-purchasing problem is solved. In the process, formulae are developed that introduce simultaneous price and quantity sensitivity into the inventory equation. A systematic procedure is suggested to locate the optimal order quantity for a given schedule of discounts or premiums.     

A COMPARISON OF SEQUENCING RULES FOR A TWO-STATE HYBRID FLOW SHOP

A common manufacturing environment in many industries (such as the glass, steel, paper, costume jewelry, and textile industries) is a hybrid flow shop. This system has continuous-process machinery in the fist state of manufacturing and repetitive-batch equipment in the second. Little research has investigated this type system. Scheduling managers of hybrid flow shops tend either to use existing job-shop rules or to devise their own rules. These approaches often are less than adequate for efficient scheduling. In this paper we extend the rule presented by Narasimhan and Panwalker [4] to include a general class of hybrid flow shops. This extenstion, called the generalized cumulative minimum-deviation (GCMD) rule, is compared under various operation conditions to three other sequencing rules: shortest processing time, longest processing time, and minimum deviation. The operating conditions are determined by the number of machines at both stages. The results of 7200 simulation runs demonstrate that the GCMD rule is better than the other rules in minimizing each of five chosen criteria. Thus, the GCMD rule can help managers to schedule hybrid flow shops efficiently to achieve various corporate objectives.     

THE IMPACT OF LOCAL CONTENT RULES ON GLOBAL SOURCING DECISIONS

Many governments have established, for various reasons, local confent purchasing rules for companies that wish to operate in their country. These requirements force firms to purchase a certain amount of components from suppliers located in that country. This paper describes local content rules and develops models to select suppliers while satisfying local content provisions. The single plant model can be transformed into a knapsack problem that is solved by a ranking procedure, and the solution provides insight as to the manner in which local content rules impact more generalized models. Furthermore, we illustrate possible negative effects to local industry that may result when governments set the local content percentage too high, and we discuss methods for companies to circumvent local content rules. Finally, we address the issue of local content rules in the context of multi-plant global sourcing decisions, and we provide an efficient solution procedure for the classical plant location model extended to include local content rules at each site     

利益细分变量研究与消费者市场细分

在当今激烈的市场竞争环境中,市场细分理论对企业市场营销活动的指导作用已为越来越多的企业所认同,并引起市场营销研究人员的关注。本文从市场细分变量入手,通过对市场细分变量的四大类型和消费者市场细分组合的多样性进行分析,并以针对国内牙膏市场上主要品牌所进行的利益细分调研为例,论述了进行利益细分研究对市场营销的指导意义。     

TRANSFER-PRICING AND OUTPUT DECISIONS: THE DYNAMIC INTERACTION

This paper is concerned with the dynamic interactions between output and transferprice decisions in a three-country model for a multinational firm when profits taxation and ad valorem tariffs are applied simultaneously. A numerical example is used to illustrate that the three-country model modifies considerably conclusions reached in the traditional two-country, two-goods framework.     

A Computational Study of Replicated Clustering with an Application to Market Segmentation*

In most commercial applications of k-means clustering, researchers choose one set of kseed points to start the partitioning process; often, the initial set of seeds is chosen randomly. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we show that significant benefits are associated with replicated starting configurations that incorporate seed selection procedures based on a hierarchical clustering of sample points drawn from the original data matrix. A real-world application of the approach is then presented.     

中国A、H股市场分割的根源分析

按照投资者的身份不同,中国的股票市场可分为A、B、H股三个市场,三个市场处于严重的分割状态,其最显著的表现就是A、B或A、H股双重上市公司股票的价差现象。本文拟以A、H双重上市股票为例,深入分析价差产生的原因,揭示中国股票市场分割产生的根源。     

When to Offer Lower Quality or Remanufactured Versions of a Product

We investigate the profitability of adding a lower quality or remanufactured product to the product portfolio of a monopoly firm, both in single‐period and steady‐state settings. Consumer behavior is characterized by a deterministic utility function for the original product and a nonlinear relative utility function for the lower quality product. We find a threshold for the cost of the low‐quality product below which it is optimal to add it to the firm's portfolio, and show that while a cost advantage is necessary to make the lower quality offering profitable under linear or convex relative utility functions, market segmentation alone can justify the addition of the lower quality product under concave relative utility functions. In particular, we characterize (i) the new product cost under which it is optimal to offer a lower quality version of the product even if it is as costly to produce as the original product; and (ii) the weighted average of new and remanufactured product costs in the steady state under which it becomes cost effective to offer new products under the remanufactured label. Finally, we also identify the maximum possible profits from customer segmentation and the form of the relative utility function that achieves them. We discuss the implications for the common marketing practices of branding and generics.     

HEURISTIC ALGORITHMS FOR CAPITAL-BUDGETING DECISIONS IN MULTIDIVISION FIRMS

This paper presents two versions of a heuristic algorithm to solve a model of the capital-budgeting problem in a decentralized multidivision firm involving no more than two exchanges of information between headquarters and divisions. Headquarters makes an allocation of funds to each division based upon its cash demand and its potential growth rate. Each division determines which projects to accept. Then, an additional iteration is performed to define the solution. More than one thousand examples were simulated resulting in an average relative error of less than one percent.     

A MODEL FOR THE PREDICTION OF JUROR DECISIONS*

A logit model approach designed to assign a probability whether prospective jurors will favor the defendant or plaintiff in a case, as a function of perceived individual juror characteristics, is described in the context of a case situation. The model, which has been programmed on a hand-held computer, is designed for implementation in courtroom settings to help defense attorneys evaluate and select jurors in order to minimize the likelihood of large jury awards. Empirical tests of the model are also described.     

Applications and Implementation DATA-BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM EVALUATION AND SELECTION DECISIONS*

The rapid increase in the use of data-base management systems (DBMSs) has created a need for structured methods of evaluation and selection. This paper offers one such method. It develops a decision schema for data-base software selection that is data-model independent and contains structural associations. A decision analysis method, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), is used to quantify the evaluation. The method developed in this paper is applied to the evaluation of two microcomputer DBMS products: dBASE II® and Condor 3®.     

Marketing Communication Intensity Across Industries

Marketing communication intensity (i.e., the ratio of advertising and promotional expenditures to sales) has been an important topic for both business managers and academics. Here, we investigate cross-sectional and time-series variation of communication intensity due to: type of offering (product versus service) and type of market (consumer versus industrial). Overall, we find that both of these factors affect variation of communication intensity across industries and over time. However, the effect of market type is much more dramatic than the effect of offering type. Such knowledge about patterns in communication intensity levels helps managers make decisions about how much to spend on advertising and promotion.     

AN EVALUATION OF SEQUENCING RULES FOR AN ASSEMBLY SHOP

Research relating to sequencing rules in simple job shops has proliferated, but there has not been a corresponding proliferation of research evaluating similar sequencing rules in more complex assembly job shops. In a simple job shop, all operations are performed serially; but an assembly shop encompasses both serial and parallel operations. As a result of the increased complexity of assembly shops, the results associated with the performance of sequencing rules in simple job shops cannot be expected for an assembly shop. In this paper, 11 sequencing rules (some of which are common to simple job shops and some decigned specifically for assembly shops) are evaluated using a simulation analysis of a hypothetical assembly shop. The simulation results are analyzed using an ANOVA procedure that identifies significant differences in the results of several performance measures. Sensitivity analysis also is performed to determine the effect of job structure on the performance of the sequencing rules.     

对我国旅行社行业管理问题的思考

自1978年以来,我国旅行社的行业管理经历了从无到有、从盲目到逐步规范化的过度阶段,行政性的直接管理是这一阶段的突出特点。进入90年代以来,随着制度环境的变化,转轨经济的实施,行政性管理已不适应我国旅行社业发展的需要,构建与实施市场化导向的旅行社行业管理已成必然。     

A Two-Period Repeated Game Advertising Investment Model for Oligopolistic Markets with an Application to the Beer Industry*

This paper proposes a simple analytical model of advertising competition in oligopoly markets. The widely used log-log sales response function underlies the model specification. Advertising carryover effects are assumed to persist for one period following the period in which the expenditure occurs. Firms are assumed to be engaged in a repeated competitive game in which in every period advertising levels are set such that they maximize current and next period (i.e., two-period) profits. A Nash equilibrium solution is sought for the game. Compared with previous empirical studies of advertising competition in a game theoretic framework, the proposed model offers the following advantages: (1) oligopoly, not duopoly, markets are analyzed; (2) industry sales is allowed to vary over time as a function of advertising expenditures; (3) non-zero discount rates are used for the players. An empirical application is provided using data from the beer market on sales and advertising expenditures of Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing. Comparisons are provided with policies that ignore the dependence of next period profits on current advertising levels, reaction function strategies and spending levels obtained from a market share game. Extension of the model formulation to multiple marketing instruments is briefly discussed.