GREENING THE SERVICE PROFIT CHAIN: THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

This paper explores the relationship between environmental practices and performance in services and the impact of such practices on the external portion of the service profit chain. Using structural equation modeling, it tests the hypotheses developed with data from the European hospitality industry. The findings suggest that environmental practices are positively related to performance through the mediating effect of enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty. The paper's contributions include: the conceptual development of the relationship between environmental practices and performance in services, the incorporation of environmental practices within the service profit chain, and the testing of their impact on customer satisfaction.     

ALLOCATING AND SCHEDULING MOBILE DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING EQUIPMENT AMONG HOSPITALS

The allocation and weekly scheduling of mobile magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) units leased to a group of hospitals that share the equipment can be a complex problem. Similar problems occur in other domains where expensive equipment or facilities such as video conference facilities, aircraft, and supercomputers are leased. The crux of the problem was determining the number of days and which days of the week various types of equipment types should be leased to hospitals, so as to maximize the rental revenues and satisfy client preferences for days of the week and equipment types. We found rental revenues were a decreasing function of the number of days allocated to a hospital. We considered two sub-problems linked by a set of variables to model the problem. We show that one of these subproblems is a minimum cost network flow problem and the other is an integer multi-commodity transportation problem. We developed a procedure for solving the latter problem by exploiting earlier results for specialized networks. We conducted a computational study to evaluate the performance of this procedure and showed that it generally provides near-optimal integer solutions. We describe the development and implementation of a spreadsheet-based decision support system based on this model. This system was successfully implemented by a small firm with no expertise or prior experience using models.     

A GENERAL APPROACH FOR COORDINATING PRODUCTION IN MULTIPLE-CELL MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

We introduce a general approach to the coordination and control of material and information flow in multiple cell manufacturing systems. This approach uses production authorization cards (called PAC system) and generalizes such well-known approaches as MRP (material requirements planning), KANBAN (japanese card system), OPT (optimized production technology), BSS (base. stock system), IC (integral control), CONWIP (constant work-in-process), and others. It provides a framework for developing coordination and control mechanisms that combine the desirable features of more than one of these traditional approaches. The coordination is achieved by the rules that determine when and how material and information flow through the system and by the appropriate choice of the parameters of these rules. We also discuss various models of the PAC system that can be used to gain insight into the impact of the choices of the parameters. Directions for future research in this area is also outlined.     

Structural changes in the 2003–2009 global hyperlink network

In this study, we examined the structure of the international hyperlink network as a global communication system at two different points in time (2003 and 2009). Research was carried out on the web‐based network linking country code top‐level domains (ccTLDs) that represent countries, using hyperlink connectivity by the means of network analysis. The results indicate that the 2009 international hyperlink network was completely interconnected. G7 countries and Spain were at the centre of the network. At the periphery were poorer countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In addition, several regional clusters based on geography, language and culture emerged. A comparison of the 2003 and 2009 results showed that the level of centralization and diversification among semi‐peripheral countries increased. We discuss the results from the perspective of world‐systems theory. We propose methodological procedures to overcome potential bias in international hyperlink data.     

Comparing world city networks: a network analysis of Internet backbone and air transport intercity linkages

Abstract The research looks at the structure of the Internet backbone and air transport networks between 82 cities in 2002, using Internet backbone bandwidth and air passenger traffic data. Centrality measures on individual city's hierarchy in the Internet and in the air traffic networks were significantly correlated, with London in the most dominant position in both networks. A quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) showed a structural equivalence between two systems. The division and membership of the clusters in both networks also showed similarity; both networks had a strongly cohesive North American‐European cluster with the London‐New York dyad as the strongest linkage in the global flow of information and people. These findings suggest that current trends in Internet infrastructure concentration reproduce and maintain global inequality and hierarchy among world cities.     

Cost accounting in manufacturing: dawn of a new era

Abstract

Advances in the technology of manufacturing planning, control and operation have made conventional cost accounting practices not only obsolete but dangerous. As a portion of total factory cost, direct labour costs have declined dramatically due to improved quality materials, fewer interruptions, automation and robotics. Overhead costs, conversely, have increased greatly and the fixed components now predominate. Charts of accounts contain many trivial items and lack those now considered very important. This article presents the needed revisions.     

The Kiss of Death and Cabal of Dons: Blackmail and Grooming in Georgian Oxford

This article reconstructs the case of an Oxford University don accused of sexual impropriety in mid‐eighteenth century England by an adolescent boy. It recreates the biographical and historical contexts involved in the scandal, and demonstrates what the various agendas and motivations were for the accusation, as well as explains how the case played itself out. The don's actions are shown to be far less straightforward than claimed by his adversaries. The chapter adds to the growing literature about adults and children in history.     

Social Representations Theory: A Progressive Research Programme for Social Psychology

The study “Psychoanalysis—its image and its public” intimates that common sense is increasingly informed by science. But common sense asserts its autonomy and, in turn, may affect the trajectory of science. This is a process that leads to many differentiations—in common sense, in scientific innovation and in political and regulatory structures. Bauer and Gaskell's toblerone model of triangles of mediation provided a distillation of their reading of “La Psychanalyse.” Here it was argued that representations are multi‐modal phenomena necessitating the use of multiple methodologies (comparative and longitudinal; qualitative and quantitative). In this paper we briefly summarise these arguments and elaborate ways in which social representation theory can be considered a progressive research programme. “Progressive” because as the theory has developed it has extended the range and depth of its conceptual basis; it provides a new synthesis for the social scientific understanding of the phenomena of common sense and of representation; it acts as an antidote to the reductionism of public opinion and, finally, it is a stimulus to depart from disciplinary silos. However, there remain unresolved issues: how to segment the relevant social milieus and how to close the feedback loop from common sense to science?     

Pseudo-Opinions on Public Affairs

This article reports on the often suspected but rarely researchedtendency of survey respondents to give opinions on topics towhich they have given little or no thought. The findings, basedon a question about a fictitious public affairs issue, do showthat the magnitude of the problem is substantial. But the dataalso demonstrate that this phenomenon does not represent simplerandom error, reflecting instead basic social-psychologicaldispositions which can be elicited, unwittingly, in the contextof the interview.