基于前景理论与多Agent模拟的KIBS员工合作与冲突行为研究

随着知识经济时代的到来,知识密集型服务业(KIBS)已经成为西方主要发达国家和地区产业结构调整关注的重点方向和近年来学术界的研究热点之一。文章研究了KIBS员工合作与冲突行为产生机理与演化规律,首先结合了人格心理学、前景理论和博弈论的相关理论,设计了KIBS员工合作与冲突行为决策模型。之后在仿真软件Anylogic 6.5.0上建立了相应的多Agent模拟模型,并针对收益参数和群体沟通这两种影响因素设计了模拟实验。最后对模拟结果进行了分析,发现收益参数中除了惩罚系数,控制因子对最终行为比例也产生影响,而沟通概率则对演化过程行为变化的幅度产生影响。     

Transaction‐Specific Investments,Relational Norms,and ERP Customer Satisfaction: A Mediation Analysis*

Integrating the perspectives of transaction cost economics, the resource‐based view, and resource dependency theory, this study analyzes the institutional settings of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations in China. Specifically, it examines how bilateral transaction‐specific investments (TSIs) and relational governance mechanisms influence customer satisfaction with ERP implementations. The model is empirically tested using data from on‐site interviews with 208 ERP customers in China. The results demonstrate that the effects of vendors’ and customers’ TSIs on customer satisfaction are facilitated by multiple‐stage micromediational chains. The influence of TSIs on customer satisfaction is mediated by relational norms, and the impact of relational norms on customer satisfaction is bridged by perceived service quality and customer trust. Furthermore, the influence of vendors’ TSIs is stronger than the influence of customers’ TSIs. The findings contribute to business research and practice by providing valuable insights into how ERP vendors and customers should strategize TSIs to enhance relationship performance.     

The Economic Efficiency of Sampling Size: The Case of Beef Trim

The economically optimal sample size in a food safety test balances the marginal costs and marginal benefits of increasing the sample size. We provide a method for selecting the sample size when testing beef trim for Escherichia coli O157:H7 that equates the averted costs of recalls and health damages from contaminated meats sold to consumers with the increased costs of testing while allowing for uncertainty about the underlying prevalence rates of contamination. Using simulations, we show that, in most cases, the optimal sample size is larger than the current sample size of 60 and, in some cases, it exceeds 120. Moreover, lots with a lower prevalence rate have a higher expected damage because contamination is more difficult to detect. Our simulations indicate that these lots have a higher optimal sampling rate.     

Risks in offshore IT outsourcing: A service provider perspective

Offshore outsourcing of Information Technology (IT) services is the prevalent practice in global businesses today. Despite the strategic advantages and cost benefits that offshore outsourcing offers, outsourcing relationships also involve risks, for both the client, as well as the service provider – a fact that is evidenced by the reported failures of such engagements. Some of the prior researches in this area have focused on identifying various types of client risks and their sources. However, the study of risks from a service provider’s perspective has not received due treatment in literature. This study analyses offshore IT outsourcing risks from the perspective of service providers. A case based approach using the principles of grounded theory was used for studying the risks. Theoretical sampling was used to collect data from 5 mid-tier offshore third party service providers based in Bangalore, India. From our coding and analysis three broad categories of service provider risks emerged, namely, macroeconomic, relationship specific and project specific. Relationship maturity, nature of contract, nature of service or project and nature of client were identified as contextual factors which influence the degree of risk.     

Sequential and Simultaneous Decision Making for Optimizing Health Care Resource Flexibilities

Health care administrators commonly employ two types of resource flexibilities (demand upgrades and staffing flexibility) to efficiently coordinate two critical internal resources, nursing staff and beds, and an external resource (contract nurses) to satisfy stochastic patient demand. Under demand upgrades, when beds are unavailable for patients in a less acute unit, patients are upgraded to a more acute unit if space is available in that unit. Under staffing flexibility, nurses cross‐trained to work in more than one unit are used in addition to dedicated and contract nurses. Resource decisions (beds and staffing) can be made at a single point in time (simultaneous decision making) or at different points in time (sequential decision making). In this article, we address the following questions: for each flexibility configuration, under sequential and simultaneous decision making, what is the optimal resource level required to meet stochastic demand at minimum cost? Is one type of flexibility (e.g., demand upgrades) better than the other type of flexibility (e.g., staffing flexibility)? We use two‐stage stochastic programming to find optimal resource levels for two nonhomogeneous hospital units that face stochastic demand following a continuous, general distribution. We conduct a full‐factorial numerical experiment and find that the benefit of using staffing flexibility on average is greater than the benefit of using demand upgrades. However, the two types of flexibilities have a positive interaction effect and they complement each other. The type of flexibility and decision timing has an independent effect on system performance (capacity and staffing costs). The benefits of cross‐training can be largely realized even if beds and staffing levels have been determined prior to the establishment of a cross‐training initiative.     

Customer Use of Virtual Channels in Multichannel Services: Does Type of Activity Matter?

Many firms have recently adopted virtual channels, based most notably on the Internet and the phone, to complement the delivery of services to their customers by their existing physical facilities. The success of such multichannel (MC) strategies relies on the alignment of service design decisions—namely those concerning the allocation of service activities to virtual channels—with customers’ MC behavior. Although prior studies have looked at the intensity with which customers use virtual channels, they have not addressed virtual channel use for different types of service activities. In our study, we investigate whether customers’ use of virtual channels for MC services varies with the type of service activities they engage in, and if so, in what way. In doing so, we address two objectives. First, we investigate the impact of accessibility to the physical channel on the degree of use of virtual channels (Internet and phone, aggregated) for different types of activities. Second, we look at channel preferences (Internet vs. phone) for different types of activities when customers do resort to virtual channels to conduct activities. To address our objectives, we develop and test hypotheses regarding customers’ use of virtual channels based on the match between activity attributes (complexity and volume) and channel attributes (access efficiency, interface efficiency, interface richness). Using data from a MC bank, we find that the impact of accessibility to physical channels (specifically, customer distance) on customers’ use of virtual channels, as well as the relative use of Internet versus phone, depend on the type of activities.     

对我国旅行社行业管理问题的思考

自1978年以来,我国旅行社的行业管理经历了从无到有、从盲目到逐步规范化的过度阶段,行政性的直接管理是这一阶段的突出特点。进入90年代以来,随着制度环境的变化,转轨经济的实施,行政性管理已不适应我国旅行社业发展的需要,构建与实施市场化导向的旅行社行业管理已成必然。     

服务质量、消费价值、旅客满意感与行为意向

作者对广东省三个旅行社进行了一次实证研究,探讨服务质量、消费价值和旅客满意程度对旅客行为意向的影响。统计分析结果表明,这三个因素都对旅客的行为意向有直接的影响。服务质量、消费价值、旅客满意程度和旅客的行为意向既是四个不同的概念,又是旅游服务消费经历的子概念。     

Politics−Bureaucracy Relationship in Bangladesh: Consequences for the Public Service Commission

The paper attempts to analyze the consequences of political pressure placed on the Public Service Commission (PSC) of Bangladesh. Through extensive literature review and empirical research, the authors conclude that the independence, efficiency and effectiveness of the PSC largely depend on the politics–administration relationship. Furthermore, this relationship is affected by regime types and it regulates the optimum functioning or malfunctioning of the institution.

Online scheduling on parallel machines with two GoS levels

This paper investigates the online scheduling problem on parallel and identical machines with a new feature that service requests from various customers are entitled to many different grade of service (GoS) levels. Hence each job and machine are labeled with the GoS levels, and each job can be processed by a particular machine only when the GoS level of the job is not less than that of the machine. The goal is to minimize the makespan. In this paper, we consider the problem with two GoS levels. It assumes that the GoS levels of the first k machines and the last m−k machines are 1 and 2, respectively. And every job has a GoS level of 1 alternatively or 2. We first prove the lower bound of the problem under consideration is at least 2. Then we discuss the performance of algorithm AW presented in Azar et al. (J. Algorithms 18:221–237, 1995) for the problem and show it has a tight bound of 4−1/m. Finally, we present an approximation algorithm with competitive ratio . Research supported by Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Y605316) and its preliminary version appeared in Proceedings of AAIM2006, LNCS, 4041, 11-21.