Data-driven operations management: organisational implications of the digital transformation in industrial practice

Abstract

The ongoing digital transformation on industry has so far mostly been studied from the perspective of cyber-physical systems solutions as drivers of change. In this paper, we turn the focus to the changes in data management resulting from the introduction of new digital technologies in industry. So far, data processing activities in operations management have usually been organised according to the existing business structures inside and in-between companies. With increasing importance of Big Data in the context of the digital transformation, the opposite will be the case: business structures will evolve based on the potential to develop value streams offered on the basis of new data processing solutions. Based on a review of the extant literature, we identify the general different fields of action for operations management related to data processing. In particular, we explore the impact of Big Data on industrial operations and its organisational implications.     

A multicriteria sorting approach based on data envelopment analysis for R&D project selection problem

In this paper, multiple criteria sorting methods based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) are developed to evaluate research and development (R&D) projects. The weight intervals of the criteria are obtained from Interval Analytic Hierarchy Process and employed as the assurance region constraints of models. Based on data envelopment analysis, two threshold estimation models, and five assignment models are developed for sorting. In addition to sorting, these models also provide ranking of the projects. The developed approach and the well-known sorting method UTADIS are applied to a real case study to analyze the R&D projects proposed to a grant program executed by a government funding agency in 2009. A five level R&D project selection criteria hierarchy and an assisting point allocation guide are defined to measure and quantify the performance of the projects. In the case study, the developed methods are observed to be more stable than UTADIS.     

Nominal comparability is not enough: (In-)equivalence of construct validity of cross-national measures of educational attainment in the European Social Survey

Educational attainment is a core social background variable covered in each and every survey of individuals. Since educational institutions and qualifications are difficult to compare across countries, cross-national surveys pose a particular challenge to the measurement of educational attainment. This study performs a comparative construct validation of a number of cross-national measures of education using the European Social Survey. The measures comprise two versions of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), the education scheme developed in the project ‘Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations’ (CASMIN) and hypothetical as well as actual years of education. The first ISCED measure corresponds to the well-known main ISCED levels. The second one, the European Survey Version of ISCED (ES-ISCED) developed for this study, represents an effort to reflect different types of education within levels of education by considering ISCED sub-dimensions, most importantly ‘programme orientation’. Using linear regression models, it is shown how much explanatory power educational attainment loses when different cross-national variables are used, as compared to country-specific educational attainment variables (CSEVs), and how these losses vary across measures and countries. The dependent variable used for the construct validation is social status as measured by the International Socio-Economic Index (ISEI). Results suggest that harmonisation always entails some loss of explanatory power for at least a few countries. However, there are clear performance differences between the comparable measures in terms of both the average amount of losses as well as the distribution of losses across countries. The use of actual years of education as well as the levels-only ISCED strongly attenuates the education-social status association on average, but also to very different degrees across countries. CASMIN and ES-ISCED fare considerably better: they show the lowest losses of explanatory power and the lowest variation of losses across countries. Hypothetical years of education lie in between. Some practical implications are then proposed, e.g. on how to implement cross-national measures of educational attainment in international surveys.     

人口迁移与流动对我国各地区经济影响的实证分析

在对近十年来我国人口迁移和流动的时空演变格局进行初步考察的基础上,文章利用面板数据的变系数模型分别实证考察了人口迁移和流动对我国各地区(省域)经济的影响。结果发现:(1)我国各地区间人口迁移相对平稳,而人口流动在2000年以后呈现出持续快速增长的态势,且空间流向极不均衡;(2)人口的迁移和流动对中国整体经济来说是一个帕累托改进;(3)户籍制度对于发达地区起到了人才沙漏的作用;(4)对于中部的绝大部分地区以及西部的一些人口输出大省,伴随人口迁出而引起的人力资本流失对当地经济的负面影响开始凸显出来,人口流出虽然基本出现一个正面影响,但对本地经济发展的贡献并不如我们预想的那么明显。     

20世纪后半期中国古代经济史资料的整理与出版

中国经济史学科形成于20世纪上半期,对经济史资料的搜求和整理工作也很快开始进行,但大规模的资料整理汇编工作则是在中华人民共和国成立以后.本文从三个方面对20世纪后半期中国古代经济史资料的整理与汇编情况作了综合回顾与考察.     

财政分权背景下的地方政府预算外收入扩张——基于中国省级面板数据的实证研究

本文对财政分权背景下我国地方政府预算外收入扩张的原因进行了理论分析,研究发现:地方政府预算外收入与辖区经济发展水平存在显著的负相关关系;与行政事业单位人员规模存在显著的正相关关系;与预算内财政支出存在显著的负相关关系;同时,在预算内财政支出既定时,预算外收入与转移支付规模存在显著的负相关关系。说明了分权改革后地方政府扩张预算外收入一方面在于弥补其财政支出的缺口;另一方面,由于预算外资金的收和支没有完全脱钩,行政事业单位改革的不彻底性,地方政府追求可自由裁量财政资源最大化的偏好等原因,进一步加剧了预算外收入的扩张。     

Testing Treatment-Covariate Interaction in a Nonparametric Analysis of Covariance Model

We consider a recently introduced nonparametric model for Analysis of Covariance and derive an asymptotic test for interaction between covariate and treatment. Furthermore, we suggest data depth techniques to obtain joint confidence regions for the covariate effects in this model.

The finite sample behavior of the asymptotic method is evaluated in simulations. Application of the procedures is illustrated using an epileptic seizures and chemotherapy data set.     

台湾高中第二外语教育现状与发展方向

今日,国际化的定义非常多样化,也逐渐在学校教育中扎根、发展。教育部门和学校一方面要不断推进英语教育的推广与改进,另一方面也要思考在多文化、多语言社会产生的"内部国际化"课题。在台湾,提早实施英语教育、推进高中第二外语教育、推行中小学及高中的国际教育政策等皆是教育改革重要部分。作为教育改革中的重要环节,20世纪90年代后期开始积极推动的高中第二外语教育已经取得了一定成效,但依旧存在专业教师培养与大学课程的衔接等方面问题。     

A Critical Look at Some Analyses of Major League Baseball Salaries

At a data analysis exposition sponsored by the Section on Statistical Graphics of the ASA in 1988, 15 groups of statisticians analyzed the same data about salaries of major league baseball players. By examining what they did, what worked, and what failed, we can begin to learn about the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to analyzing data. The data are rich in difficulties. They require reexpression, contain errors and outliers, and exhibit nonlinear relationships. They thus pose a realistic challenge to the variety of data analysis techniques used. The analysis groups chose a wide range of model-fitting methods, including regression, principal components, factor analysis, time series, and CART. We thus have an effective framework for comparing these approaches so that we can learn more about them. Our examination shows that approaches commonly identified with Exploratory Data Analysis are substantially more effective at revealing the underlying patterns in the data and at building parsimonious, understandable models that fit the data well. We also find that common data displays, when applied carefully, are often sufficient for even complex analyses such as this.     

A study of DEA models without explicit inputs

In performance evaluations, data without explicit inputs (such as index data, pure output data) are widely used. To directly use such data, this paper presents a study on building DEA models without explicit inputs, so-called DEA-WEI models, which are applicable to the evaluation applications where inputs are not directly considered. We provide an axiom foundation of these kinds of models, and further discuss how to incorporate value judgments of decision makers into these DEA-WEI models. Several such models are derived. Finally, applications of the DEA-WEI models are presented.