Comparative analysis of model management and relational database management

There has recently been considerable interest in research and practice that rely substantially on ideas from both model management and database management to solve problems that cannot be adequately addressed by either field alone. Following this frontier, this paper examines the essential nature of model management and relational database management, and discusses the validity of parallels which appear to exist between them. The characteristics of applications, functions, representations, utilizations, and research are used as a basis for conducting comparisons. Through these comparisons, the strengths and weaknesses of each field are evaluated, and significant similarities and differences are identified. An application for making use of the parallels identified is also presented in the paper. Rather than restricting the ideas and techniques applied within each field, this paper encourages the cross-fertilization of both model management and relational database management, in the hope that this may spawn creative ideas for research.     

A bibliometric analysis of operations research and management science

Bibliometric analysis is the quantitative study of bibliographic material. It provides a general picture of a research field that can be classified by papers, authors and journals. This paper presents a bibliometric overview of research published in operations research and management science in recent decades. The main objective of this study is to identify some of the most relevant research in this field and some of the newest trends according to the information found in the Web of Science database. Several classifications are made, including an analysis of the most influential journals, the two hundred most cited papers of all time and the most productive and influential authors. The results obtained are in accordance with the common wisdom, although some variations are found.     

Interaction Between Concurrent Transactions in the Design of Distributed Databases

A distributed database system allows concurrent execution of transactions from multiple users at multiple locations. This paper presents a general scheme of including the effect of interaction between such transactions in the design process of distributed databases. This scheme allows the decision maker to choose the most appropriate design for a distributed database. The interaction effect is a consequence of concurrency control procedures and contention for system resources. Prior research has not included all components of the interaction effect in the design process. A separate module, called an interaction module, was built to measure the interaction effect using a comprehensive simulation model of a general purpose relational distributed database management system (DBMS). The interaction module can be interfaced with any distributed database design system as an add-on module so that the interaction effect can be included in the design process. A detailed example demonstrates the use of the interaction module in the decision-making process. Experiments conducted using the module show that the interaction effect can be significant and that it can affect the choice of the design. Experiments were also conducted to measure the sensitivity of design choices under changing input conditions.     

Financial performance and global start-ups: the impact of knowledge management practices

This paper investigates how knowledge management (KM) practices improve the financial performance of global start-ups (GSs). Using a database of 114 global innovative Italian start-ups, this study is based on the principal component analysis – data envelopment analysis (PCA-DEA) method. In particular, a survey was conducted to investigate KM practices and secondary data was used to evaluate financial performance. This research highlights that the adoption of different knowledge management practices (i.e., acquisition, documentation, creation, transfer and application) has a positive impact on the financial performance of global start-ups. The study contributes to the literature on international entrepreneurship, shedding light on the consequences of KM practices for global start-ups' financial performance, and provides guidelines for business owners, enabling them to understand better how knowledge management can facilitate the achievement of high levels of financial efficiency.     

A neural network clustering model for miscellaneous components production planning

The growing importance of providing service to customers, e.g. post-sale assistance, supplying of spare parts, upgrading and integration of new elements in installed systems, enhances the importance of planning and management of upgrading parts in most manufacturing industries. These parts are generally characterized by high technical heterogeneity and have a highly variable and difficult to forecast demand. In some areas (especially the most dynamic, e.g. high-tech products), these kinds of components are quite common, and represent a very strong relation between the manufacturing firm and the market. These parts are generally too many to be efectively supported on a planning database system with individual records and too heterogeneous ( and sometimes with a too high value) to be supported all together in a single record. In this paper, we want to study the application of adaptive techniques for the clustering of these components in classes based on the similarities in their market behaviour in order to build an optimal database for planning production and supplying of these components.     

基于知识图谱与扎根分析的中国管理理论构建范式研究述评

基于知识图谱理论和扎根理论的方法指导,以中文社会科学引文检索数据库收录的1998~2019年期间,与中国管理研究以及理论构建相关的561篇施引文献和7108篇被引文献作为研究对象。通过运用Citespace V可视化软件,进行中国管理研究与理论构建的知识基础、研究热点和主题演进脉络等的可视化分析与研究;并进一步精选了116篇科技文献为样本数据进行三级扎根编码,构建中国管理理论的研究框架模型。研究表明:中国管理研究目前聚焦于理论构建范式的研究主题,构建中国管理理论要直面实践导向,扎根传统文化,实现实践与文化的融合,要采用多元科学方法论与方法,辩证地使用实证研究方法。     

Tying the Acquirer's Human Resource Management Quality to Cross‐Border Acquisition Divestment Probability: Curvilinear Connection with Slacklining

Cross‐border acquisitions are growing in volume and global economic importance, yet a considerable number end in failure. Many of these failures may be linked to people management‐related issues. We extend this stream of research by investigating the impact of the acquirer's aggregate human resource management (HRM) quality on cross‐border acquisition divestment. Our empirical analysis uses a panel database of 4128 cross‐border acquisition/year observations and an event history design. The findings confirm a curvilinear relationship and suggest that acquisition failures are not merely associated with poor HRM quality, but also with very high levels of HRM quality, that is, with both extremes. Moreover, our results show that financial slack has a significant moderating effect on the curvilinear relationship between HRM quality and the likelihood of acquisition divestment. Overall, our study reveals boundary conditions for the widely demonstrated positive relationship between HRM quality and organizational performance in an acquisition context.     

Modelbase Construction with Object-Oriented Constructs*

This paper proposes modelbase construction mechanisms in a decision support system (DSS) for representing and managing models of diverse management science/operations research modeling paradigms, using object-oriented database management systems (ODBMS) constructs. It focuses on the construction of a modelbase that maintains logical independence among the DSS components including modelbase, database, and solvers, but relieves the mismatching characteristics by facilitating intelligent and stabilized integration of them. As a conceptual framework to build such a modelbase, this research uses generic model concepts, and adopts structured modeling language (SML) as a paradigm-neutral model representation sublanguage. In the modelbase, three model abstraction layers including model type, model structure, and model instance are devised to facilitate the capture of multiple modeling paradigms and specific application models in different instantiation levels. The constructs and methods discussed are flexible enough to be applied to a wide variety of decision-making and problem-solving paradigms. A prototype system is developed under a commercial ODBMS called OBJECTSTORE with the C++ programming language, and diverse model manipulation commands are illustrated by an object-oriented structured query language (OSQL).     

THE IMPACT OF UNIONS ON OPERATIONS STRATEGY

This paper explores the effect that unions have on a firm's ability to reengineer manufacturing processes. We begin by exploring the various effects that a union may have in a manufacturing environment. Next, we briefly review how unions may affect managerial initiatives to reengineer processes and improve manufacturing performance. The third section analyzes an existing database to test for differences in cycle time and manufacturing performance between union and nonunion firms. Finally, we discuss the implications of the study for future operations strategy research and note how a different form of union‐management relationships is beginning to evolve.     

Linking inventory efficiency,productivity and responsiveness to retail firm outperformance: empirical insights from US retailing segments

This paper establishes an empirical model linking a retail firm’s inventory management effectiveness to superior competitive operational performance for specific product-line retail segments. Using 16?years of US retail firm financial data from the COMPUSTAT Fundamentals database across 12 distinct competitive retailing segments, we develop and test a time-series model that links several inventory management execution measures to the competitive operational outperformance of retail firms. The analysis presented provides strong evidence that measures of inventory management performance are not ‘one size fits all’ for the retail industry, and helps to explain why extant research has had difficulty linking inventory control policy effectiveness to operational performance advantages in retailing. We discuss the implications of these empirical findings on the study of inventory policy execution, and offer some guidance for further research.     

Effectiveness, accountability, and efficiency

Management of health care is compromised by its singular reliance on billing information--i.e., a claims trail tells little of what providers think. It relates to neither prevention of disease nor reduction of unnecessary health care costs. Billing information is not the substrate to be used in the pursuit of appropriateness, effectiveness, and value. To improve medical management of health care, a protected, but accessible clinical database is needed.     

A PAVEMENT MANAGEMENT DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM

We present a pavement management expert system developed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and implemented within a geographical information system for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The system uses pavement data regularly collected on the state's 12,000 miles of highway to assist engineers, planners, and budget analysts' management decisions about pavements to be included in 6-year improvement and 3-year maintenance programs. The system has a three-layer architecture. The lowest level suggests treatments for each of a large number of small segments of highway. The middle layer aggregates segments, suggests alternative treatments, and estimates the cost of each. The top layer prioritizes the projects and incorporates them into intermediate-range plans. The geographical information system environment enables integration of existing databases within the system using a topologically structured geographic database and specialized software.     

The effect of the Bootstrap method on additive fixed data perturbation in statistical database

In the information age, more and more data are stored in databases. Some data are retrieved in a statistical format as a means of protection. A statistical database provides summarized statistics to users while usually sheltering individual information. However, it has been found that users can send legal queries and deduce unauthorized information by recomposing queried data. Fortunately, the data perturbation technique can be used to improve the security of a statistical database by inserting minor biases into the database. This study uses Bootstrap method to demonstrate the possibility of deducing detailed information from individual data in a statistical database based on small samples, and then goes on to search for an effective perturbation distribution to ensure data security.     

On the use of multivariate regression methods for longest path calculations from earned value management observations

This paper explores the use of multivariate regression methods for project schedule control within a statistical project control framework. These multivariate regression methods monitor the activity level performance of an ongoing project from the earned value management/earned schedule (EVM/ES) observations that are made at a high level of the work breakdown structure (WBS). These estimates can be used to calculate the longest path in the project and to produce warning signals for project schedule control. The effort that is spent by the project manager is thereby reduced, since a drill-down of the WBS is no longer required for every review period. An extensive computational experiment was set up to test and compare four distinct multivariate regression methods on a database of project networks. The kernel principal component regression method, when used with a radial base function kernel, was found to outperform the other presented regression methods.     

Journal of International Management: A 25-year review using bibliometric analysis

The Journal of International Management (JIM) is a leading international academic journal in the field of international business. This study presents a retrospect of the publications in JIM for the last 25 years (as JIM was founded in 1995) through a bibliometric methodology using the Scopus database and Web of Science. The study graphically maps the bibliographic material using VOS viewer software and applies co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence of author keywords. We identify that the journal has expanded consistently and steadily in terms of both number of publications and citations. The collaboration network has expanded over the years, and the geographical focus is more global, encompassing Asia and Oceania. Bibliographic coupling of JIM publications reveals several distinct, major themes in the international management/business domain. Conventional international management themes that have emerged include market entry modes, globalization, international human resource management, cross-cultural management/leadership, and expatriate management. New emerging themes include emerging markets, global sourcing, innovation performance, digital firms, diversity of global teams, internationalization in uncertain environments, and virtual teams. A summary of the shifting research trends and themes in the discipline and their development is presented in this review, culminating in future directions for prospective publishers of JIM.     

Simplified production management software for the small manufacturing firm

This paper proposes design rules in order to simplify current MRP II software systems and make them suitable for the small manufacturing firm. Simplification rules apply to production data management by reducing database complexity. This has consequences for medium-term requirements planning which is moved toward the realization of simultaneous material and capacity planning. The simplification procedure is completed by applying aggregate decision models to shop floor control which allow the introduction of a minimal transaction processing system. Object-oriented analysis concepts are used for the design of the primary production data model, which has a consistent effect on transaction data and decisional procedures throughout the whole production management software system.     

企业流程再造的方法研究

企业流程再造是当今管理界的热点问题之一。针对目前在流程再造中缺少能指导、支持流程重新设计的方法和工具,本文提出一种流程再造的方法。通过规范构成流程的基本单位活动,按照一定的方法构建活动描述数据库,然后利用活动之间的相关性从数据库中搜索、回溯新流程的可行方案,并根据效用函数值得到最优设计方案,另外还可以根据活动之间的相似性寻找各流程的冗余活动,从而合并或删除从属于不同部门之间的相似流程。最后本文对构造支持该方法的决策支持系统进行了初步分析。     

Database—A neglected corporate resource?

The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a research study of the topic of databases in organizations. The study's purpose was to assess the impact database has had on a number of organizations. The paper reports on the results of the study and concludes that in general the much discussed benefits of databses cannot be supported.     

META-DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS IN DEVELOPING MODEL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS*

This paper examines cognitive considerations in developing model management systems (MMSs). First, two approaches to MMS design are reviewed briefly: one based on database theory and one based on knowledge-representation techniques. Then three major cognitive issues—human limitations, information storage and retrieval, and problem-solving strategies—and their implications for MMS design are discussed. Evidence indicates that automatic modeling, which generates more complicated models by integrating existing models automatically, is a critical function of model management systems. In order to discuss issues pertinent to automatic modeling, a graph-based framework for integrating models is introduced. The framework captures some aspects of the processes by which human beings develop models as route selections on a network of all possible alternatives. Based on this framework, three issues are investigated: (1) What are proper criteria for evaluating a model formulated by an MMS? (2) If more than one criterion is chosen for evaluation, how can evaluations on each of the criteria be combined to get an overall evaluation of the model? (3) When should a model be evaluated? Finally, examples are presented to illustrate various modeling strategies.