Role of Random Capacity Risk and the Retailer in Decentralized Supply Chains with Competing Suppliers

This research considers a supply chain under the following conditions: (i) two heterogeneous suppliers are in competition, (ii) supply capacity is random and pricing is endogenous, (iii) consumer demand, with and without an intermediate retailer, is price dependent. Specifically, we examine how uncertainty in supply capacity affects optimal ordering and pricing decisions, supplier and retailer profits, and the incentives to reduce such uncertainty. When two suppliers sell through a monopolistic retailer, supply uncertainty not only affects the retailer's diversification strategy for replenishment, but also changes the suppliers’ wholesale price competition and the incentive for reducing capacity uncertainty. In this dual‐sourcing model, we show that the benefit of reducing capacity uncertainty depends on the cost heterogeneity between the suppliers. In addition, we show that a supplier does not necessarily benefit from capacity variability reduction. We contrast this incentive misalignment with findings from the single‐supplier case and a supplier‐duopoly case where both suppliers sell directly to market without the monopolistic retailer. In the latter single‐supplier and duopoly cases, we prove that the unreliable supplier always benefits from reducing capacity variability. These results highlight the role of the retailer's diversification strategy in distorting a supplier's incentive for reducing capacity uncertainty under supplier price competition.     

Partially Flexible Operating Rooms for Elective and Emergency Surgeries

In hospitals, the management of operating rooms faces a trade‐off between the need to be responsive to emergency surgeries and to conduct scheduled elective surgeries efficiently. Operating rooms can be configured as flexible and handle both electives and emergencies, or as dedicated to focus on either electives or emergencies. With flexible rooms, the prioritization of emergencies over scheduled electives can lead to schedule disruptions. Focused rooms can lead to imbalances between capacity and surgery workload. Whereas hospital administrators typically handle this trade‐off by employing either flexible rooms (complete flexibility) or dedicated rooms (complete focus), we investigate whether a combination of flexible and dedicated rooms (partial flexibility) could be a preferable alternative. The ensuing question is what is the right combination of flexible and dedicated rooms? A versatile simulation model is developed to evaluate different resource allocation policies under various environmental parameters and performance metrics, including patient wait time, staff overtime, and operating room utilization. The main result is that partial flexibility configurations outperform both complete flexibility and complete focus policies by providing solutions with improved values of expected wait time for both emergency and elective patients.     

Point‐of‐Use Hybrid Inventory Policy for Hospitals

Modern point‐of‐use technology at hospitals has enabled new replenishment policies for medical supplies. One of these new policies, which we call the hybrid policy, is currently in use at a large U.S. Midwest hospital. The hybrid policy combines a low‐cost periodic replenishment epoch with a high‐cost continuous replenishment option to avoid costly stockouts. We study this new hybrid policy under deterministic and stochastic demand. We develop a parameter search engine using simulation to optimize the long‐run average cost per unit time and, via a computational study, we provide insights on the benefits (reduction in cost, inventory, and number of replenishments) that hospitals may obtain by using the hybrid policy instead of the commonly used periodic policies. We also use the optimal hybrid policy parameters from the deterministic analysis to propose approximate expressions for the stochastic hybrid policy parameters that can be easily used by hospital management.      

Assessing Antecedents of Socially Responsible Supplier Selection in Three Global Supply Chain Contexts

A number of highly publicized, controversial lapses in social responsibility within global supply chains have forced managers and scholars to reexamine long‐held perspectives on supplier selection. Extending Carter and Jennings’ department‐level study of purchasing social responsibility, our research assesses the role of supply managers’ ethical intentions and three key antecedents that drive socially responsible supplier selection. Comparing evidence from firms operating in China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates, we identify three key drivers of supply managers’ ethical intentions and examine both their direct and indirect impacts on socially responsible supplier selection. We find differential support for the predictor relationships on supply manager ethical intentions across national contexts and mediated versus nonmediated models. These observations bear important implications for firms conducting global supply management.     

Organizational Learning in Global Purchasing: A Model and Test of Internal Users and Corporate Buyers*

This research examines a model centered on organizational learning in purchasing. Two different studies are conducted to test the hypotheses among purchasing users (Study 1) and buyers (Study 2). The user sample consists of users representing 355 strategic business units of a Fortune 500 multinational corporation. The buyer sample consists of corporate buyers of 200 multinational corporations drawn from the membership directory of the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM). In each study, the focus is on the learning relationships between corporate buyers and internal users in the purchasing organization. Based on the two studies, the results suggest that organizational learning in the purchasing process is influenced by the organizational culture factors of localness, transformational leadership, and openness. Organizational learning has a positive effect on information processing in the purchasing system, which, in turn, has a positive influence on the cycle time of the purchasing process.     

新世纪会计的发展趋势

新世纪会计将有重大的发展。进入新的千年,在发展知识经济的条件下,会计仍将具有重要地位。会计的重心在管理,建立管理型会计模式,会计要逐步实现现代化。会计核算向多方面、高质量方向发展;会计管理向全方位、知识管理方向发展;会计学向综合化、细化、边缘化方向发展;会计发展在于创新。     

知识管理与企业管理信息系统建设

知识经济时代,知识在企业最终产品和劳务的价值增值中起着重要的作用,知识是企业经营最重要的资源。企业应该把知识管理融合到企业的管理信息系统中,并且将知识管理作为主要的管理活动和利用知识管理取得企业竞争优势。本文从—些企业知识管理成功与失败的案例入手,探讨企业知识管理的内涵,知识管理、企业业务流程与企业管理信息系统整合中的信息技术的软硬平台。探讨将知识管理与信息技术和企业业务流程结合起来的最佳方式,达到全企业的知识共亭,提高企业全体员工的素质,进而提高企业的竞争能力。     

国有企业系统变革战略思索

本文从分析国有企业急需解决的现实问题入手,提出了新形势下系统变革的战略观点,集中研究和探讨了当前我国国企管理发展新变革的十大战略思维,进而提出了国企相应采取的一系列策略与措施。     

墨子的管理思想研究

墨子是中国春秋战国时期著名的思想家、哲学家、政治家、科学家、军事家和逻辑学家。墨子对于管理、教育、法制、伦理等思想亦有丰富的阐述。本文着重阐明其管理思想,这包括以人为本、尚贤使能、尚同控制、察其志功等。墨子的管理思想对当今的企业管理与行政管理都具有相当的借鉴作用。     

顾客化大量生产环境下生产管理的新问题及共对策研究

本文重点讨论了顾客化大量生产给生产管理带来的新问题,从生产过程组织、计划、控制等角度提出实施顾客化大量生产应着重解决的问题及研究建议.