The Influence of Service Orientation on B2B e‐Service Capabilities: An Empirical Investigation

E‐Services, or the company's portfolio of service offerings available to its customers through the Internet, are an emerging area of interest to operations management. Yet little is known about the operations and capabilities needed for provision of business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐services. This paper aims to make a contribution toward closing this gap. First, we develop a new construct of B2B e‐service capability, a term that captures a generic set of five interrelated and complementary dimensions: (1) e‐service recovery, (2) e‐customization, (3) ease of navigation, (4) service portfolio comprehensiveness, and (5) information richness. These combined operational abilities are associated with B2B service delivery, including its portal design, technology architecture, and mix of product and service offerings. They are posited to be necessary for delivering effective B2B e‐services. We also argue that, both service orientation (SO) and customer receptivity to technology, influence B2B e‐service capability. We empirically test a path model using structural equation modeling on a sample of 181 businesses that have deployed B2B e‐services. We find that the influence of SO on performance is not direct but rather mediated by the e‐service capability, a finding that holds for both goods producers and service providers. We suggest that a firm's SO may mitigate industrial customers' resistance toward conducting business online.     

MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN THE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS: CHALLENGES FOR THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

Motivating students to learn and apply operations management concepts is an important aspect of the learning process in an operations management class. While an emphasis on techniques and pedagogical technology has some motivational benefits, this paper proposes an emphasis on student/teacher interaction and a deeper understanding of complex situations. To support this approach, publishers should provide the materials to effectively use the new classroom technologies and the tools to support a wide variety of teaching styles. In addition, publishers should provide creative cross-functional simulations so that students can understand the role of operations management in the context of the firm. Finally, rich decision-making environments are needed to put the students in more realistic situations.     

INSTRUCTING OPERATIONS DESIGN: AN EXPERIENTIAL APPROACH

Teaching an operations design course has major pedagogical challenges. (1) The design topics—output, process, facility, and work design—are necessarily taught sequentially, yet the decisions are integrative. (2) Instruction must be generic to service or product producers. (3) Discussing output design is difficult since students typically have had no exposure to the “product language” of engineering graphics. (4) No text is available which examines in sufficient depth all the operations design decisions. (5) Cases necessarily depict historical situations—process technologies and economic data—while operations managers must plan future directions for their productive systems. (6) While the commercial world contains fresh information and data, students are inexperienced in obtaining knowledge from the real world. (7) While the course presents an operations management perspective, students must recognize the information, data, and cooperation necessary from the other functional areas to successfully complete the operations design. To help overcome these seven pedagogical challenges, the students in the undergraduate and graduate operation design courses complete a comprehensive feasibility study for a new product or service and the entire productive system.     

CIM implementation for job-shop environments

Abstract

Abstract. The small to medium-sized job-shop manufacturing industry can benefit most from the implementation of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) technology, to meet the increasing demand for high-quality and economically priced products. The injection mould making industry is a typical representative for this group, where a manufacturer would generally produce moulds which consist of parts that are standard to every mould type or very similar. Thus, manufacturing techniques, such as group technology (GT), and production planning and control (information) management systems could make significant contributions in improving the efficiency of design and production operations.

The objective of the project, presented in this paper, was the development of a GT-based classification and coding (C/C) system for injection mould parts especially for the design and process planning phases, and the development of a production planning and shop-floor control (SFC) information management system.

An extensive investigation was carried out on existing GT-based C/C systems. This investigation, followed by a thorough examination of many injection mould parts for determining geometric similarities, led to the development of part families (classes) required for GT implementation. An OPITZ-type GT system was developed, thereafter, for the C/C of the manufactured parts of the target company.

The production planning and control software that has been developed for the target company utilizes a relational data base management system. It consists of 13 application programs, which provide a tool of organizing information for efficient production planning and SFC. The programs are designed to cover all manufacturing operations of a job from the proposal to the final testing stage. Shop orders and dispatch lists are created using this software for effective and prioritized SFC. Shop status and job status reports are generated based on feedback information received through time card entries.     

A Rational Theory of Mutual Funds' Attention Allocation

The question of whether and how mutual fund managers provide valuable services for their clients motivates one of the largest literatures in finance. One candidate explanation is that funds process information about future asset values and use that information to invest in high‐valued assets. But formal theories are scarce because information choice models with many assets are difficult to solve as well as difficult to test. This paper tackles both problems by developing a new attention allocation model that uses the state of the business cycle to predict information choices, which in turn, predict observable patterns of portfolio investments and returns. The predictions about fund portfolios' covariance with payoff shocks, cross‐fund portfolio and return dispersion, and their excess returns are all supported by the data. These findings offer new evidence that some investment managers have skill and that attention is allocated rationally.     

A fuzzy set approach for R&D portfolio selection using a real options valuation model

Making R&D portfolio decision is difficult, because long lead times of R&D and market and technology dynamics lead to unavailable and unreliable collected data for portfolio management. The objective of this research is to develop a fuzzy R&D portfolio selection model to hedge against the R&D uncertainty. Fuzzy set theory is applied to model uncertain and flexible project information. Since traditional project valuation methods often underestimate the risky project, a fuzzy compound-options model is used to evaluate the value of each R&D project. The R&D portfolio selection problem is formulated as a fuzzy zero–one integer programming model that can handle both uncertain and flexible parameters to determine the optimal project portfolio. A new transformation method based on qualitative possibility theory is developed to convert the fuzzy portfolio selection model into a crisp mathematical model from the risk-averse perspective. The transformed model can be solved by an optimization technique. An example is used to illustrate the proposed approach. We conclude that the proposed approach can assist decision makers in selecting suitable R&D portfolios, while there is a lack of reliable project information.     

DEVELOPING POM FACULTIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Having added total quality management (tqm), operations strategy, new product development, and many other topics to its repertoire over the past two decades, operations management is being pushed-by practitioners and students alike-to extend its reach both horizontally (to encompass the whole supply chain and the interface with other functions) and internationally. Moreover, the increasing sophistication of computer technology and the growth of the intemet are expanding the teaching and research methodologies that can be used to address these complex issues. Meeting the challenges posed by this ever-broadening conceptualization of our mission and the new tools available to us will require more than simply new knowledge and new courses. It also will require an influx of new people having very different backgrounds than in the past. We have to learn how to attract such people, how to prepare them to be effective teachers and researchers in production and operations management (pom), and how to work effectively with them. The locations of faculty, students, and potential partners in the learning experience also will be transformed, forcing us to reconsider how we organize to do our work and when and where we do it.     

PEDAGOGICAL CHALLENGE: TEACHING INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT COURSES

There should be two distinctly different pom introductory courses (or even tracks) for MBAs. Course one (called pom) would consist of traditional pom materials emphasizing domestic POM course materials. Course two, called international production and operations management (ipom), would focus on international aspects of pom, emphasizing cross-boundary operations. Training of instructors differs significantly for the two courses. ipom accentuates operations crossing borders where different languages, cultures and currencies apply. The ipom syllabus employs cases and examples based on companies and/or divisions located in a great variety of countries. Three important drivers of the international pom curriculum should be recognized: (1) supply chain management with ipom responsible for coordinating sources-of materials as well as making and delivering goods and services across global boundaries, (2) portfolio management because ipom can reduce risks by geographically diversifying operations, and (3) capabilities management because ipom must spot, develop and implement special global opportunities. Teaching how these three international drivers interact challenges the pom field to provide proper curriculum development and instructor methodology.     

On the correlation between fraud and default risk

Identity fraud is one of the fastest growing white-collar crimes today and a serious concern in our information-based economy. This paper studies one type of identity fraud: new account fraud, where an impostor opens lines of credit using a false identity, made-up or stolen. Relying on a unique data set of consumer bank accounts, that contains information on both, fraud and default losses, I analyze the correlation between fraud and default risk. I find that common socio-economic/demographic account holder characteristics have opposite effects on estimated default and fraud probabilities. For example, women possess a lower fraud probability, but a higher default probability, compared to men, and foreigners are more likely to engage in account fraud but less likely to default than Germans. Also, the portfolio level analysis indicates that portfolio loss distributions are quite sensitive to ex ante portfolio characteristics like the share of foreigners or blue-collar workers. These findings have important implications for banks managing their consumer credit portfolios using limiting rules based on borrower characteristics, and for the adequacy of banks’ capital levels.     

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT'S NEW “REQUISITE VARIETY”

This essay is based on my plenary address at the second annual meeting of the Production and Operations Management Society on November 11, 1991. I propose that as the competitive environment in which production and operations management (POM) practitioners operate becomes ever more demanding and the problems about which POM academics study and teach become more complex and interrelated, we need new approaches both in our teaching and our research. I describe five ways of expanding our “requisite variety” of capabilities.     

因子模型在风险预算分析中的应用

风险预算在国外正赢得学术界、养老基金和资产管理领域等许多方面的广泛关注,并认为是组合管理的一种创新。国内投资者日益认识到投资组合管理与风险控制的重要意义,并近乎成为他们的第一要务。本文利用因子模型,通过风险预算这一投资管理和风险控制技术与方法,讨论投资组合因子风险分解并进行实证分析。     

基于突变的项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤研究

对于以项目方式进行管理或生产的企业来说,共享资源在多项目、特别是项目组合(project portfolio,PP)中的合理配置是企业运营所需要解决的重要问题,对企业实现可持续发展起着关键的支撑作用。本文将突变理论引入项目组合管理问题中,在类比交通系统中车辆对交通资源竞争的基础上,提出了项目组合系统共享资源竞争拥挤概念,并对其基础变量进行了详细分析;其次,本文分析了项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤势函数和竞争稳定性,构建了以系统效率最大化为决策目标的项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤模型;最后,通过HD集团的案例分析对项目组合共享资源竞争拥挤模型的可实践性进行了验证,并以此为基础,针对项目组合管理提出了共享资源的改进管理方案。     

EXTENDING THE BOUNDARIES OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: AN INTERNATIONAL FIELD-STUDIES APPROACH INTEGRATING INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Continued globalization, extensive use of information technologies, increasing cross-functional dependencies, and new organizational forms are rapidly changing the learning context of operations management. This paper describes an example of a mba elective course that has been created to address and learn from these new realities. We have taken a process view of the global firm, focusing mainly on the new product/service development, order fulfillment, and supply chain/ after-sales service processes. We have designed our course to contain most of the traditional topics in operations management (om) with information systems (is) woven in to support the key business processes. Our underlying belief is that these two functional areas should be seen as a blend, a seamless merging of the two fields, to obtain a competitive advantage. Besides teaching om and is in this integrated manner, the course engages in face-to-face student consulting projects with multinational companies. This paper describes our rationale for the course design and how it has been implemented over the last 6 years-as well as our plans for the future.     

基于β系数优化的动态投资组合策略研究

本文提出一种股票动态投资组合策略，首先通过上升和下降贝塔来优选行业，然后在选择的行业中构造股票投资组合。对于股票投资组合，利用均值方差投资组合模型作为内核，通过引入参考时间窗口和持有期限窗口两个外生参数构建动态的均值-方差模型，并实证检验了模型的可行性。然后再经过多项业绩评价指标对比分析得出动态投资组合策略的收益明显优于被动投资策略，这种动态投资组合策略能够获得部分超额收益并且具有更好的可靠性。本研究为投资者提供了一种定量的投资组合管理方法，并从侧面验证了我国股市的非有效性。     

Finding and Implementing Energy Efficiency Projects in Industrial Facilities

This study addresses the challenges of finding and implementing profitable energy efficiency (EE) projects, a critical foundation for sustainable operations. We focus on manufacturing enterprises, but many of our findings apply also to the back office of service operations. Our starting point is that, in nearly every industrial enterprise, there are many profitable EE projects that could be implemented but are not. An oft‐cited hindrance to implementation is the lack of an internal management framework in which to find, value, and execute these projects. Using a conceptual approach, we rely on proven sustainable operations tools to develop such a framework. We identify three major value drivers of EE projects: savings intensity, “green” image, and project complexity. We then describe a framework for understanding the context of EE projects in industry, with an underlying analytic foundation in optimal portfolio analysis. A case study of a large manufacturing site is used to illustrate emerging best practices—based on Kaizen management principles—for integrating EE project management with operations, engineering, and strategy.     

Expanding the Reach of Participatory Risk Management: Testing an Online Decision‐Aiding Framework for Informing Internally Consistent Choices

This article presents research aimed at developing and testing an online, multistakeholder decision‐aiding framework for informing multiattribute risk management choices associated with energy development and climate change. The framework was designed to provide necessary background information and facilitate internally consistent choices, or choices that are in line with users’ prioritized objectives. In order to test different components of the decision‐aiding framework, a six‐part, 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted, yielding eight treatment scenarios. The three factors included: (1) whether or not users could construct their own alternatives; (2) the level of detail regarding the composition of alternatives users would evaluate; and (3) the way in which a final choice between users’ own constructed (or highest‐ranked) portfolio and an internally consistent portfolio was presented. Participants’ self‐reports revealed the framework was easy to use and providing an opportunity to develop one's own risk‐management alternatives (Factor 1) led to the highest knowledge gains. Empirical measures showed the internal consistency of users’ decisions across all treatments to be lower than expected and confirmed that providing information about alternatives’ composition (Factor 2) resulted in the least internally consistent choices. At the same time, those users who did not develop their own alternatives and were not shown detailed information about the composition of alternatives believed their choices to be the most internally consistent. These results raise concerns about how the amount of information provided and the ability to construct alternatives may inversely affect users’ real and perceived internal consistency.     

USING MANAGEMENT GAMES AS AN AID IN TEACHING MIS DESIGN

As an approach to teaching management information systems, students are required to play a management game. The students become aware of information needs through participation in the decision process of the game. The student then develops an integrated system to assist in playing this management game. This new approach, the gaming method, is considered an effective way of teaching integrated systems because the intimate interrelationships between decision-making processes and information systems can be easily illustrated.     

INTRODUCING INTERNATIONAL ISSUES INTO OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CURRICULA

As the world moves toward a global economy, it is increasingly important that operations management courses prepare students to address globalization issues. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the dialog concerning how international topics are best incorporated into operations management curricula. On the basis of the results of a survey of operations management academicians worldwide, current course offerings are cataloged and topic areas critical to the globalization of operations are identified. Four major reasons for studying international operations management are proposed, which provide the basis for recommendations on how international topics can be introduced into established operations courses and for the design of an elective course in global operations. Finally, teaching materials relevant to international operations are surveyed.     

基于股价预测的泛证券投资组合策略

本文基于期望效用最大化和L₁-中位数估计研究了在线投资组合选择问题。与EG（Exponential Gradient）策略仅利用单期价格信息估计价格趋势不同,本文将利用多期价格信息估计价格趋势,以提高在线策略的性能。首先,基于多期价格数据,利用L₁-中位数估计得到预期价格趋势。然后,通过期望效用最大化,提出一个新的具有线型时间复杂度的在线策略,EGLM（Exponential Gradient via L₁-Median）。并通过相对熵函数定义资产权重向量的距离,进而证明了EGLM策略具有泛证券投资组合性质。最后,利用国内外6个证券市场的历史数据进行实证分析,结果表明相较于UP（Universal Portfolio）策略和EG策略,EGLM策略有更好的竞争性能。