Personal computing and support services

This paper reports the results obtained from a field study of 173 US companies which have implemented personal computing in the past five years. The study establishes the relationship between (i) the support services provided by the MIS department and its control over the PC acquisition process and (ii) and degree of information system (IS) management concerns with personal computing problems such as user training and user experience and the existence of selected organizational programs and policies for personal computing. This study provides empirical evidence concerning the above relationships by formulating and testing three propositions.     

New competition in financial services

This article examines the effects of competition facing financial services institutions, from the strategic management and from organizational management viewpoint. Through analysis of a survey, the nature of the problems facing managers are highlighted. The article is intended as a case study of an industry under change, and the conclusions identify lessons to be learned from the experience.     

New opportunities in global services

This article calls attention to macroenvironmental changes and competitive factors affecting the international distribution of services and addresses some options and implications for corporate strategy. It provides a conceptual framework for understanding and evaluating services trends, cites examples of services that are expanding internationally and explores the interrelationships between production and services trade.     

Competition and subsidies in international air transport

The proponents of international air transport deregulation claim that increased competition would follow, benefiting travellers and increasing carrier efficiency. But there are major differences between the US domestic market and the international market. The pursuit of noneconomic goals by subsided state enterprises may cause large losses in efficiency. State-owned airlines may engage in ‘predatory’ practices, to past on high costs in a relatively unregulated market. Private- enterprise carriers may have to withdraw or acquiesce to a noncompetitive structure. The author stresses that international markets are largely structured by bilateral negotiations between governments — competition should be safeguarded in such negotiations.     

The growth of acquisitions in services

Service firms account for 55% of all mergers and acquisitions deals which were done in the 1980s, so it is essential that we understand better the benefits they seek and the challenges they encounter. This study identifies the specific benefits sought and challenges encountered in the mergers and acquisitions as reported by the CEOs of 174 major firms operating across five service sectors. The study also identifies the management's choice of strategies for entering international markets. Clear differences exist among these service sectors in the benefits sought, the challenges encountered and their international market entry strategies. However, merging different cultures and integrating different staffing policies were identified as major challenges in all the sectors.     

Experience with urban air pollution in Paterson, New Jersey and implications for air pollution communication

Communication about air pollution can help reduce health risks, but a scattered, largely qualitative literature on air pollution beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors raises questions about its effectiveness. A telephone survey of Paterson, New Jersey (USA) residents tested four hypotheses aimed toward integrating these findings. Self-reported sheltering indoors during high pollution, the recommended strategy, was predicted by perceived air quality and self-reported "sensitivity" to air pollution. Nearly a quarter of the sample reported mandatory outdoor activity (e.g., work) that might increase their exposures, but this factor did not significantly affect self-reported sheltering. Perceptions of air quality did not correlate strongly with official monitoring data (U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI)); even people who regularly sought AQI data relied upon sensory cues to high pollution, and secondarily upon health cues. Use of sensory and health cues, definitions of what makes someone sensitive to air pollution, and (less strongly) definitions of vulnerability to air pollution varied widely. The minority aware of the AQI were more likely to seek it if they had illnesses or saw themselves in the targeted AQI audience, yet less likely if they believed themselves sensitive to pollution. However, their sense of the AQI's match to their own experience was driven by whether they used sensory (yes) or health (no) cues, not by illness status. Some urban residents might not have access to AQI data, but this barrier seems outweighed by need to bridge interpretive gaps over definitions of air pollution, sensory perception, vulnerability, and health consequences.     

寡头市场信息产品与服务的最优定价策略

在信息产品与服务竞争性市场中,信息产品及附加服务的定价策略日渐成为信息产品提供商关心的首要问题.而以往的研究多集中于单一信息产品的定价策略,没有统一考虑产品的后续服务,且假设消费者的网络外部性强度相同.分析了异质消费者和双寡头垄断市场,针对基础信息产品和附加服务的定价策略选择问题,建立了双寡头垄断市场中两个企业的捆绑销售和分别销售策略的博弈模型,使得双寡头企业通过4种局势下的策略选择实现收益最大化的定价策略.同时,将差异化网络外部性强度系数引入Hotelling模型,计算企业的需求函数和收益函数,并采用两阶段Bertrand博弈分析两个企业的定价策略和竞争行为.通过模型求解,得到4种局势下两家企业的最优定价解析解.通过数值模拟分析了潜在消费者的构成比例及市场规模对企业定价、市场占有率和最优收益产生的影响,以及不同成本和市场规模组合下企业的最优定价策略.     

Analysing business opportunities in North Sea oil

Offshore activity in the North Sea is the first of a number of worldwide offshore developments that will take off in the next 10 years. Exploration is occurring at a dramatic rate off the coasts of a number of countries in South East Asia and is also taking place off the coast of Australia, Africa, South America, the United States and Canada. The North Sea will thus, in many cases, be the test bed for suppliers to the offshore industry. With all countries which have oil deposits off their coast being anxious to promote indigenous supply of products and services to the oil industry, competition in the world market will intensify. Only those companies who can establish their product and marketing strategies in the politically calm environment of the North Sea can hope to reap the rewards of what may turn out to be the world's fastest growing industrial market over the next 20 years.     

Interactions between the supply of and demand for hospital services in London

This paper describes some of the work done by the Operational Research Service of the Department of Health and Social Security concerned with health care planning for London and the surrounding counties. The emphasis of the paper is on the development of a model of the interaction between the spatial distribution of in-patient facilities and levels of admission to hospital for residents of different localities. The background to the work is first explained and the need for such a model examined. The structure of the model is briefly outlined and the ways in which it can be used by health care planners are explored. The model provides a powerful tool for use in assessing the impact on local populations of various geographical resource configurations. At present this model is calibrated specifically for the South East of England; however, the approach could usefully be applied in many other areas of the country and elsewhere in the world.     

Evaluating cost efficiency in central administrative services in UK universities

This paper describes an attempt to evaluate cost efficiency in UK university central administration. The funding councils of higher education institutions have progressively evolved elaborate systems for measuring university performance in teaching quality and research. Indeed, funding of universities is linked to their performance in research. The allocation of resources between academic and administrative activities, on the other hand, has so far not been subject to scrutiny. Yet, expenditure on administration is typically some 30% of that allocated to academic activities. This paper sets up a data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework to identify practices leading to cost-efficient central administrative services in UK universities. The problems in defining the unit of assessment and the relationship between the inputs and the outputs are clearly demonstrated.     

Toward integration of products and services: Taxonomy and typology

Integration of products and services has been receiving increased attention from both practice and academia, but there is no common systematic framework that can accommodate various concepts. In response, this paper first defines an umbrella term, “integrated product–service” (IPS), that encompasses all related concepts. An extensive literature review is conducted, allowing the production of a taxonomy of IPS, called the IPS dichotomy. As a typology of IPS, the IPS cube, comprising eight cells, is also proposed along with practical examples. This paper is expected to lay a foundation for further advances in the field of integration of products and services.     

Tactical and operational planning of express intra-city package services

In this paper, we focus on routing and load planning associated with the tactical and operational planning of an express intra-city courier service provider that receives a large number of shipments on a daily basis and is committed to delivering them to their destinations given a short service guarantee. Tactical planning relies on high-level aggregated demand rates over long time periods and takes the form of a multi-commodity service network design where the goal is to identify one path per commodity while maximizing consolidation opportunities in the network. Commodities are transported on their paths by means of a series of continuously operating vehicle cycles, where the structure and number of such cycles are determined concurrently with commodity path assignment decisions in a mixed integer programming. A second model is designed to refine the time allocation along different segments of a commodity path allowing a potential reduction in the number of vehicles required to meet the service guarantee. In operational planning, the focus is narrowed down to a shorter time period, and the baseline plan obtained from the tactical planning phase is adjusted to better fit potential deviations in observed demand patterns compared to the aggregate patterns. Through an extensive computational study designed on the topology of a major US city, we observe that the plans designed at the tactical level guarantee high service levels, which are improved at the operational level by customizing the plan to the special characteristic of a day of operation.     

Location models for ceding market share and shrinking services

New location models are presented here for exploring the reduction of facilities in a region. The first of these models considers firms ceding market share to competitors under situations of financial exigency. The goal of this model is to cede the least market share, i.e., retain as much of the customer base as possible while shedding costly outlets. The second model considers a firm essentially without competition that must shrink it services for economic reasons. This firm is assumed to close outlets so that the degradation of service is limited. An example is offered within a competitive environment to demonstrate the usefulness of this modeling approach.