A new two-party bargaining mechanism

If resources and facilities from different partners need to be engaged for a large-scale project with a huge number of tasks, any of which is indivisible, decision on the number of tasks assigned to any collaborating partner often requires a certain amount of coordination and bargaining among these partners so that the ultimate task allocation can be accepted by any partner in a business union for the project. In the current global financial crisis, such cases may appear frequently. In this paper, we first investigate the behavior of such a discrete bargaining model often faced by service-based organizations. In particular, we address the general situation of two partners, where the finite Pareto efficient (profit allocation) set does not possess any convenient assumption for deriving a bargaining solution, namely a final profit allocation (corresponding to a task assignment) acceptable to both partners. We show that it is not appropriate for our discrete bargaining model to offer the union only one profit allocation. Modifying the original optimization problem used to derive the Nash Bargaining Solution (NBS), we develop a bargaining mechanism and define a related bargaining solution set to fulfil one type of needs on balance between profit-earning efficiency and profit-earning fairness. We then show that our mechanism can also suit both Nash’s original concave bargaining model and its continuous extension without the concavity of Pareto efficient frontier on profit allocation.     

Risk perception and post-formation governance in international joint ventures in Taiwan: The perspective of the foreign partner

This paper draws on a risk analysis framework in order to develop a systematic understanding of the risks perceived by partners, and to investigate the implications of risk perception for the configuration of control, in the post-formation governance of international joint ventures. The key variables in this framework consist of six situational factors which are considered as potential antecedents of perceived risk: conflict, opportunism, cultural difference, dependence, partner fit, and ownership share; partner's perception of risk; and post-formation governance as a set of outcome variables. The framework is tested using a sample of international joint ventures located in Taiwan. The findings show that conflicts between partners, opportunistic behavior by the local partner, cultural differences, and perceived partner misfit are related to foreign partners' risk perceptions. This study suggests that when foreign partners face likely performance and partnership risks after an IJV is established, they tend to resort to tighter post-formation governance measures in order to increase or maintain their confidence in their joint ventures.     

Financial planning using goal programming

Financial planners within industrial organizations are often given the impossible task of formulating a multi-year financial plan which is severely over-constrained. As the planner attempts to meet one objective another variable (or ratio of variables) becomes unacceptable and he is faced with the familiar ‘balloon squeezing’ effect. The problem is one of multiple conflicting objectives (goals) hence lends itself very well to a goal programming method of solution. This approach provides a powerful ‘what-if’ device for the financial planner and allows him to arrive at a satisfactory solution by examining the various trade-offs among the conflicting goals. To be an effective and usable tool, the individual goals are not assigned a priority coefficient as is typical of most goal programming applications. Rather, the planner can reflect his priorities in the manner in which he performs the subsequent what-if analyses. Also, a more flexible penalty function is introduced allowing the planner to assign a more realistic set of penalities which vary in severity over a specified range. Methods of implementing this concept are discussed which overcome the problems created by the immense storage requirements and the necessity of assigning the various penalties.     

Managing the Performance Trade‐Offs from Partner Integration: Implications of Contract Choice in R&D Projects

Formal contracts represent an important governance instrument with which firms exercise control of and compensate partners in R&D projects. The specific type of contract used, however, can vary significantly across projects. In some, firms' govern partnering relationships through fixed‐price contracts, whereas in others, firms' use more flexible time and materials or performance‐based contracts. How do these choices affect the costs and benefits that arise from greater levels of partner integration? Furthermore, how are these relationships affected when the choice of contract is misaligned with the scope and objectives of the partnering relationship? Our study addresses these questions using data from 172 R&D projects that involve partners. We find that, (i) greater partner integration is associated with higher project costs for all contract types; (ii) greater partner integration is associated with higher product quality only in projects that adopt more flexible time and materials or performance‐based contracts; and (iii) in projects where the choice of contract is misaligned with the scope and objectives of the partnering relationship, greater partner integration is associated with higher project costs, but not with higher product quality. Our results shed light on the subtle interplay between formal and relational contracting. They have important implications for practice, with respect to designing optimal governance structures in partnered R&D projects.     

Task-related and Partner-related Selection Criteria in UK International Joint Ventures

This paper identifies partner selection criteria in a sample of UK international joint ventures with Western European, US and Japanese partners. Rankings of selection criteria are derived for the sample using a typology that distinguishes between task-related and partner-related selection criteria. The most important task-related criteria are found to be access to knowledge of local market, access to distribution channels, access to links with major buyers and access to knowledge of local culture. The most important partner-related selection criteria are trust between the top management teams, relatedness of partner's business and reputation. A parsimonious set of selection criteria for the sample is provided by means of factor analysis. Hypotheses are tested on the relationship between the relative importance of selection criteria and a number of characteristics of the sample—partner nationality, industry of the joint ventures, joint-venture purpose, geographical location of the venture, initial approach for joint-venture formation and relative partner size. The greatest variation in the relative importance of selection criteria occurs with the geographic location of the joint venture.     

A model for national planning policies

This paper attempts to develop a multiobjective model to help policy-makers choose the most appropriate mix of economic policies concurrent with the elimination of serious gaps. Each individual policy attempts to achieve a specific goal or a set of subgoals; but it may hinder the achievement of some other subgoals. To differentiate between the importance of different objectives, the analyst assigns different priorities to each of the given set of subgoals. Three sets of results are provided by three separate computer runs of this model. Each set of results corresponds to one of the three priority structures, and each run indicates quite differing underachievements or over-achievements of individual subgoals. A detailed explanation for each of these deviations (gaps) from the targeted subgoals is attempted in an overall framework and some interactions between various gaps (savings gaps, foreign exchange gap, domestic growth gap, GNP gap, etc.) are also identified.     

In search for the ideal coopetition partner: an experimental study

Coopetition (collaboration between competitors) has the potential to provide major benefits or losses to participating firms. Entering a partnership with a competitor is a strategic decision with potential long-term consequences rendering the choice of partner of key importance. Existing research has investigated partner’s strategic attributes, but not how the inter-organizational factors between coopetiting firms affect partner selection and on which layers those effects occur. We use a vignette study for reducing this gap, representing the first experimental study on the field of coopetition research. The results from our study from 874 evaluations of potential coopetition partnerships by key informants from Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland offer insights into how the possible partner’s role, resource alignment and the planned activity affect partner selection. The findings suggest that the partner’s role in the markets—i.e. whether it is a direct or an indirect competitor—is critical in partner selection. The planned activity and resource configuration is also found to influence the evaluation of possible coopetition partners. Overall, the results of this first experimental study in coopetition research provide important implications to both theory and practice.     

Quantitative Comparison of Approximate Solution Sets for Bi‐criteria Optimization Problems*

We present the Integrated Preference Functional (IPF) for comparing the quality of proposed sets of near‐pareto‐optimal solutions to bi‐criteria optimization problems. Evaluating the quality of such solution sets is one of the key issues in developing and comparing heuristics for multiple objective combinatorial optimization problems. The IPF is a set functional that, given a weight density function provided by a decision maker and a discrete set of solutions for a particular problem, assigns a numerical value to that solution set. This value can be used to compare the quality of different sets of solutions, and therefore provides a robust, quantitative approach for comparing different heuristic, a posteriori solution procedures for difficult multiple objective optimization problems. We provide specific examples of decision maker preference functions and illustrate the calculation of the resulting IPF for specific solution sets and a simple family of combined objectives.     

Concepts,Theory, and Techniques A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR ORDINAL MULTIOBJECTIVE DECISIONS BASED ON FUZZY SETS

Using the structural forms supplied by fuzzy set theory and approximate reasoning, a new method is presented for solving multiple-objective decision problems for which the decision maker can supply only ordinal information on his preferences and the importance of the individual objectives.     

Partnering with Russia's new entrepreneurs: Software tsarina olga kirova

This article focuses on a Russian woman entrepreneur who established a very successful software firm under license from an American software company. The case illustrates a productive and successful partnership between a Western company and a new Russian entrepreneur. Recent developments in Russian entrepreneurship are reviewed, and the selection of Russian entrepreneurs as business partners is evaluated. The American company is described briefly, followed by an in-depth discussion of its Russian partner and founder, Olga Kirova. Conclusions and interpretations are offered on choosing the right Russian partners, assessing their personal values, objectives and leadership skills, being a good Western business partner, and considering Russian women as business associates.     

An integrated approach to evaluation and planning of best practices

This paper develops a new integrated evaluation and planning approach for implementing a given set of best practices in a prioritized and phased manner. The best practices are implemented for achieving lower-level business unit objectives and higher-level strategic goals of an organization. With a multiattribute decision making algorithm under the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework, a new evaluation model is developed to effectively measure the relationship between lower-level objectives and higher-level goals, and to give each best practice a relative priority value. A new adjustment method is also developed to address potential biases in the self-assessment process at the business unit level. The evaluation model enables the prioritization and implementation planning of best practices in terms of their importance and achievability from the viewpoints of the organization, four BSC strategic perspectives, individual business units, and the overall implementation planning zone. An empirical study is conducted to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the integrated evaluation and planning approach.     

MULTIPLE-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING INCLUDING QUALITATIVE FACTORS: THE POST-MODEL ANALYSIS APPROACH

As a method of solving multiple-criteria decision making problems with a single quantitative objective and multiple qualitative objectives, the post-model analysis (PMA) approach is proposed. The essence of PMA is to support the trade-offs between a quantitative objective and multiple qualitative objectives so that the decision maker can find a perceived most preferred nondominated solution. To this end, the optimal solution of a quantitative model is found first, without regard for qualitative factors. The solution is then evaluated in terms of qualitative objectives. When the initial quantitatively optimal solution is adjusted to allow improvement of qualitative goals, opportunity costs of achieving qualitative goals are incurred. In this process, an expert system and/or graphical display can be used. PMA therefore provides a way to incorporate quantitative models into knowledge-based expert systems.     

Multi-objective multi-verse optimiser for integrated two-sided assembly sequence planning and line balancing

Research in assembly optimisation is presently inclined towards integrative measures. Several benefits of simultaneously optimised Assembly Sequence Planning (ASP) and Assembly Line Balancing (ALB) have been highlighted by researchers to have better solution quality, shorter time-to-market, and minimalised error during planning. Recently, several efforts have been made to realise integrated assembly optimisation. However, none of the published research considered the two-sided assembly line problem. This paper presents an integrated ASP and ALB optimisation in a two-sided assembly environment (2S-ASPLB), which is mainly adopted in automotive assembly process. In this study, the 2S-ASPLB problem was formulated and optimised using Multi-Objective Multi-Verse Optimiser (MOMVO) by considering line efficiency, reorientation penalty, and tool change as the optimisation objectives. The computational experiments were conducted in a few stages, beginning with the identification of the best decoding approach for 2S-ASPLB. Next, the best MOMVO coefficient was studied, followed by comparing MOMVO performance with well-established multi-objective optimisation algorithms. Finally, a case study problem was presented to demonstrate applicability of the proposed model and algorithm in real-life problem. The results indicated that the priority factor (PF) decoding approach had better performance compared with others. Meanwhile, in comparison with well-established algorithms, MOMVO performed better in convergence and solution distribution. The case study results indicated the applicability of proposed 2S-ASPLB model and algorithm to improve line efficiency in assembly line. The main contribution of the research is a new 2S-ASPLB model and optimisation scheme, which can assist manufacturer in designing better assembly layout.

     

Coalition Formation and Cost Allocation for Joint Replenishment Systems

This paper focuses on the issues of coalition formation and cost allocation in a joint replenishment system involving a set of independent and freely interacting retailers purchasing an item from one supplier to meet a deterministic demand. The papers dealing with this problem are mainly focused on supperadditive games, where the cost savings associated with a coalition increase with the number of players in the coalition. The most relevant question addressed then is how to allocate the savings to the players. In this paper, we propose to go further by dealing with a non‐supperadditive game, where a set of independent retailers have the common understanding to share the cost savings according to the cost‐based proportional rule. In this setting, the global cost optimization is no longer a relevant approach to identify appealing coalitions for any retailer. Here, we provide an iterative procedure to form the so‐called efficient coalition structure and we show that this coalition structure has the nice properties of being (i) weakly stable in the sense of the coalition structure core and (ii) strongly stable under a given assumption. An exact fractional programming based solution is also given to generate such efficient coalitions.     

Interactive Multiple Objective Decision Support for Sales Force Sizing and Deployment*

An interactive decision aid is introduced for the deployment of two sales resources: salespeople and sales support staff. The aid consists of a normative sales resource allocation model with five objectives and an interactive multiple objective programming solution procedure. The specific decision problem addressed involves the assignment of salespeople and sales support people to customer accounts and the allocation of the time they spend on these accounts. The authors contribute to the existing sales resource modeling literature by dealing with the deployment of two sales resources and interactively solving this problem with respect to five short-run and long-run objectives of the firm. This approach differs from existing sales force modeling efforts in which the solution is found noninteractively by optimizing a single sales resource model with respect to a single objective, often short-run sales. An application of the decision aid to the deployment problem of an industrial sales force manager is presented. Furthermore, useful extensions of the basic sales resource allocation model are discussed.     

Partner selection in green supply chains using PSO – a practical approach

Partner selection is crucial to green supply chain management as the focal firm is responsible for the environmental performance of the whole supply chain. The construction of appropriate selection criteria is an essential, but often neglected pre-requisite in the partner selection process. This paper proposes a three-stage model that combines Dempster–Shafer belief acceptability theory and particle swarm optimisation technique for the first time in this application. This enables optimisation of both effectiveness, in its consideration of the inter-dependence of a broad range of quantitative and qualitative selection criteria, and efficiency in its use of scarce resources during the criteria construction process to be achieved simultaneously. This also enables both operational and strategic attributes that can be selected at different levels of hierarchy criteria in different decision-making environments. The practical efficacy of the model is demonstrated by an application in Company ABC, a large Chinese electronic equipment and instrument manufacturer.     

Partner selection in agile supply chains: a fuzzy intelligent approach

Partner selection is a fundamental issue in supply chain management as it contributes significantly to overall supply chain performance. However, such decision-making is problematic due to the need to consider both tangible and intangible factors, which cause vagueness, ambiguity and complexity. This paper proposes a new fuzzy intelligent approach for partner selection in agile supply chains by using fuzzy set theory in combination with radial basis function artificial neural network. Using these two approaches in combination enables the model to classify potential partners in the qualification phase of partner selection efficiently and effectively using very large amounts of both qualitative and quantitative data. The paper includes a worked empirical application of the model with data from 84 representative companies within the Chinese electrical components and equipment industry, to demonstrate its suitability for helping organisational decision-makers in partner selection.     

Dynamic evolution of alliance portfolios

This research advances in the conceptualization and the operationalization of the factors or microdynamics that determine the choice of partners. Most of the literature in this area of research has centered on the individual alliance without taking into account the set of alliances that a firm makes. This research applies a holistic approach, analyzing the set of alliances as a whole and points to the factors related to alliance portfolios that affect the choice of partners. The authors propose a longitudinal model that allows us to analyze the evolution of interorganizational networks. A Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analysis (SIENA) has been applied to a sample of 229 firms, analyzing 10,556 strategic alliances established between them over a 12 year period. The results show that certain factors over which managers exercise a degree of control (deliberate endogenous microdynamics) exert significant influences on the choice of partners by the focal actor and thereby on the dynamic configuration of alliance portfolios.     

The Impact of Alliance Management Capabilities on Alliance Attributes and Performance: A Literature Review

The literature on alliances has identified a variety of inter‐firm antecedents of performance, including information and knowledge sharing between partners, shared partner understanding, and a focus on collective objectives. Recent studies have focused on alliance management capabilities (AMC) – firms' abilities to capture, share, store and apply alliance management knowledge – as an important antecedent of performance. This paper reviews 90 studies on AMC and makes two important contributions to the literature. First, the review provides an overview of and classification scheme for the different types of AMC to better organise the diverse empirical findings that have been presented in the literature. The novel classification distinguishes between general and partner‐specific AMC and between AMC stored within the firm and within the alliance. Second, consistent with the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper offers a more detailed understanding of why AMC improve performance, by highlighting the intermediate impact of AMC on alliance attributes. In particular, the review demonstrates how the different categories of AMC influence alliances in terms of information and knowledge‐sharing between partners, shared partner understanding and the pursuit of collective goals. The review also demonstrates that these attributes improve performance. The authors note promising avenues for future empirical research that involve combining the classification scheme with research on the impact of AMC on alliance attributes and performance.     

模糊合作对策的Shapley值

考虑合作对策中支付函数是模糊数的情形,利用模糊数学相关理论,对Shapley提出的三条公理进行拓广,并构造了模糊Shapley值.针对局中人在合作完成后需要对具体的联盟收益进行分配的情况,文中利用构造的模糊Shapley值隶属函数给出了确定的收益分配方案.最后将该方法应用到动态联盟伙伴企业收益分配的实例中.