What makes hybrid insourcing successful: A new public–private partnership model for social welfare services

Outsourcing has been a key policy tool for delivering a range of social services, and regarded as more effective than insourcing or direct government provision. At the same time, it has also caused many delivery issues such as principal‐agent problems, a lack of policy coordination, and poor‐quality welfare services. While the pendulum continues to swing between insourcing and outsourcing, we aim to propose a new public–private partnership model called the “hybrid insourcing model” and examine which factors influence the performance of the model. In South Korea, around 2010, the local government in Namyangju City was the first to implement the “Hope Care Center model,” a kind of hybrid insourcing model, which has been praised for its innovation and widely emulated by central and local governments. Our analysis utilizes data collected between December 2017 and January 2018 from public sector employees and civilian staff in Namyangju and a comparable city, A. From this, we draw a number of implications, both for theory and for policy. We argue that, for public–private partnerships, active cooperation and equality are the biggest factors in contributing to positive performance. These work alongside leaders with a clear vision and with employees' positive attitude.     

Multi-objective optimization in partitioning the healthcare system of Parana State in Brazil

Motivated by a proposal of the local authority for improving the existing healthcare system in the Parana State in Brazil, this article presents an optimization-based model for developing a better system for patients by aggregating various health services offered in the municipalities of Parana into some microregions. The problem is formulated as a multi-objective partitioning of the nodes of an undirected graph (or network) with the municipalities as the nodes and the roads connecting them as the edges of the graph. Maximizing the population homogeneity in the microregions, maximizing the variety of medical procedures offered in the microregions, and minimizing the inter-microregion distances to be traveled by patients are considered as three objective functions of the problem. An integer-coded multi-objective genetic algorithm is adopted as the optimization tool, which yields a significant improvement to the existing healthcare system map of the Parana State. The results obtained may have a strong impact on the healthcare system management in Parana. The model proposed here could be a useful tool to aid the decision-making in health management, as well as for better organization of any healthcare system, including those of other Brazilian States.     

劣势耐用品厂商的产品质保期与质保服务投入策略研究

在实际中，消费者购买耐用品时均同时获得厂商提供的质保服务，由于产品质保服务影响着消费者的产品使用效用，因此耐用品定价、质保期和产品质保服务投入是影响厂商利润的主要因素。考虑双寡头市场环境下，建立微分博弈模型讨论单位产品质保服务投入和产品质保期对双寡头厂商均衡价格的影响。结论表明双寡头厂商的单位产品质保服务投入越高、质保期越长，均衡价格越高；但单位产品保服务投入与质保服务对消费者效用影响系数的关系影响着竞争对手在均衡价格的变化趋势；劣势的低质量厂商可以通过增加单位产品质保服务投入策略或延长质保期的策略实现在均衡下与高质量厂商以同等价格销售耐用品，但劣势厂商增加单位产品质保服务投入策略要优于延长质保期策略。最后，利用数值分析进一步验证了所得结论的有效性。     

网络环境下服务科学与创新管理研究展望

基于网络环境的服务发展与创新已成为经济发展的新引擎。本文在分析网络环境下服务特征基础上，探讨了其对服务科学与创新管理研究的影响。结合我国社会经济发展对现代服务快速增长的需求，本文提炼了服务科学研究的三类基本科学问题，包括服务价值的内涵与度量，服务资源的要素及其价值生成，和服务关系的界定与形成问题；提出了服务与创新管理的四个重要研究领域，即：服务生态系统的形成与演化，服务资源要素的组织与协调，服务的关联与融合和社会服务运作管理问题。在四个重要研究领域的进一步分析中，论文以一个异质数据服务资源的组织与融合为例，描述了服务资源组织与协调的一个具体问题，说明了已有研究方法解决该问题的困难，和未来该问题研究需要关注的重点；另以平台服务中基于价值和关系的服务定价问题为例，说明服务关联与融合研究的挑战及其未来研究的努力方向。     

产品服务供应链的“双重收益共享”合作机制

产品与服务融合缓解了"供需错位"矛盾，使得产品服务供应链探索成为"供给侧结构性改革"下供需结构性匹配的重要路径。本文刻画产品服务视角下供应链组织结构的本质特征，构建产品服务供应链合作模型，探讨合作机制下"帕累托改进"区间存在性，揭示合作机制对产品服务供应链效率的作用机理。核心研究发现：供应链多元化组织结构加剧收益分配冲突，并导致服务规模与供应链效率"倒挂"现象，而合作机制下"双重收益共享"合作模型能提升产品服务供应链效率。     

国际航运中心航运服务信息整合研究

以航运高端服务为特征的伦敦和以航运基本服务为标志的新加坡、汉堡等国际航运中心都具有完善的航运服务信息整合能力,本质上也是国际航运信息整合中心。与发达国家相比,上海在国际航运中心航运信息整合范围、信息平台集成水平、权威信息发布和政策自由度等方面存在明显差距,未来需要尽快明确整合路径、落实保障措施。     

Shared service center research: A review of the past,present, and future

More than 75% of Fortune 500 companies have established models of shared services with the aim of gaining superior performance by cost savings and service enhancements. Despite scholars' complaints about scant shared service center (SSC) research, this study shows that the actual shortcoming in this stream concerns a high fragmentation of the academic literature (e.g., we found 137 works in the initial search and 83 works in a refined screen). In this first comprehensive literature review, we synthesize peer-reviewed articles and classify them into 4 perspectives according to their research questions (i.e., determinant, process, control, and outcome). We identify 17 major research areas across these perspectives. Additionally, we provide information on methodologies and theories. On the basis of the literature synthesis, we discuss opportunities and gaps and propose an agenda for future research. Specifically, we suggest 3 potential research directions (i.e., direct relationships, mediating, and outcome effects) regarding SSCs during their operational maturity phase.     

湖南省学前教育普及现状调查与对策建议

湖南省实施发展学前教育三年行动计划效果明显，学前教育机构总数、在园幼儿数、学前三年毛入学率显著增加。与经济发达省份对比，湖南省学前教育普及水平还比较落后，城镇学前教育普及水平明显高于农村地区，县域之间学前教育普及水平差距明显。湖南省普及学前教育面临的主要问题是：政府主导作用发挥不够、农村学前教育普及水平落后、学前教育基础建设不足、普及学前教育路径不畅。推进湖南学前教育持续普及，需要构建学前教育公共服务体系，大力扶持农村学前教育，建立学前教育的保障体系，优化学前教育普及模式。     

An integrated system of engaging social workers and community volunteers in social care for the elderly: case studies in Taiwan

Integrating volunteers into social care is widely expected but rarely successful in practice. This paper discusses how the Community Care Centre Plan organising community volunteers to provide services to the elderly in Taiwan. This plan successfully integrated social workers and volunteers in a national system to offer service in local communities, showing a systemic practice of community care and a unique case of community-based and volunteer-based service. The purposes of this paper are to introduce the programme design and to understand how to integrate the mission of social workers and volunteers’ performance. The governmental policy and requirements, the role of social workers and the provision of voluntary community service which contributed to form the system were examined in this paper.     

Is social partnership the way forward for Indian trade unions? Evidence from public services

Since the start of economic reforms in 1991, India's trade unions have found themselves increasingly excluded from the political process and marginalized in collective bargaining. Using survey and interview data from the Maharashtra affiliates of two national union federations, this article examines whether social partnership with employers is a viable option for Indian unions to regain influence and protect workers' interests, as some analysts have advocated. Its findings indicate that despite Maharashtra's supportive regulatory framework, which in theory should facilitate cooperative industrial relations, the realities of workplace employment relations – coupled with state indifference and adverse judicial interventions – weaken labour's prospects for meaningful social partnership.