JSOM Staff and Student Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10735.1/3196

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Optimal Delivery Due Date for a Supplier with an Unreliable Machine Under Outsourced Maintenance
(Elsevier Science B.V., 2018-11-21) Sharafali, Moosa; Tarakci, Hakan; Kulkarni, Shailesh; Hameed, Raja Abdul Razack Shahul; Hameed, Raja Abdul Razack Shahul
In this paper, we analyse the due-date-to-promise problem for a supplier who supplies parts to his customer. The parts are produced on an unreliable machine with constant production rate. The machine is leased from a contractor who is also entrusted with its maintenance. The supplier's decision is the optimal due date to promise to his customer, taking into account the holding and tardiness costs on the customer side, as well as the transfer payment to the contractor for the lease and maintenance of the equipment. The contractor in turn has to decide on the frequency of pre-ventive maintenance. Both maximize their own profits. For this finite horizon optimization problem, we employ a Non-Renewal-Theory based approach from the literature to derive the performance characteristics in the transient regime - first for a general setting involving general distributions and then, for a special case. We then use Game Theory to analyse the underlying two-member game for both the non-cooperative and cooperative cases. A numerical example drawn from the literature is used to illustrate the special case. We show that for the special case, the game has a unique Nash equilibrium. Another significant result is that the Nash solution dominates the Stackelberg solution when the supplier is the leader. The supplier is worse off when the contractor is the leader. The example further shows that the supplier and the contractor stand to gain under cooperation which is well documented in the literature. We point to relevant literature for strategies to enforce this cooperation.
Developing Evaluation Frameworks for Business Models in China's Rural Markets
(MDPI, 2018-12-26) Zhang, Xinxiang; Hu, Lijun; Salimath, Manjula; Kuo, Ching-Chung; Kuo, Ching-Chung
In rural China, successful and sustainable business model design has been viewed as an important strategy to achieve a win-win scenario in which rural poverty can be alleviated and enterprise profit can be improved. Although business model related literature is strong, it lacks a comprehensive framework for appraising business models in rural markets. As a result, entrepreneurs are facing significant challenges in implementing their market development centered business models or resource development centered business models. This study draws on case analysis to present two frameworks for evaluating the two types of business models, respectively. Through open coding and axial coding on eight Chinese cases, we identify the main components for the evaluation frameworks and critical factors within each component. Using the coding results as a lens, we apply a cross-case comparative data analysis to establish the multi-level evaluation systems. Finally, we provide suggestions for entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to better their business model design in China's rural markets.
Observing Cascade Behavior Depending on the Network Topology and Transaction Costs
(Springer, 2019-01-31) Kim, Joohyun; Kwon, Ohsung; Lee, Duk Hee; Kim, Joohyun
The Internet, smartphones, Social Networking Service, and other IT goods have improved the overall quality of life, but created an over-connectedness with extremely low transaction costs in our society, amplifying latent social problems. In light of this, we demonstrate the main mechanism of information cascades in various network topologies using computational model that can consider autonomous agents, the adoption of others' decisions, and network topologies. Our findings reveal that: (1) lower transaction costs may amplify the occurrence of information cascades; (2) the network structure significantly affects the behavior of traders in terms of the individual and the whole market; and (3) highly spread trend-shift cascades can be observed in scale-free networks when the influence of a dominant agent's decision significantly affects the connected agents. Such findings highlight how a highly over-connected network has its critical shortcomings.
Aspirations and Corporate Lobbying in the Product Market
(Sage Publications Ltd, 2019-04-26) Eun, Jihyun; Lee, Seung-Hyun; 0000-0002-1552-7863 (Eun, J); 295606728 (Lee, S-H); Eun, Jihyun; Lee, Seung-Hyun
Given corporate lobbying’s double-edged nature, previous research has been interested in what motivates firms to engage in lobbying. In this study, we build on previous works to analyze how two types of aspiration, historical aspiration, which represents the level of performance firms aim to achieve given past self-performance, and social aspiration, which represents the level of performance firms aim to achieve given competitors’ achievements, shape corporate lobbying decisions. Our premise is that when a firm’s product market performance is below historical aspirations, then the firm is motivated to engage in lobbying because the benefits of lobbying outweigh the potential costs. However, when a firm’s product market performance is below social aspirations, then decision-makers perceive that the potential challenges of lobbying outweigh the benefits and decide not to engage in lobbying. By examining automotive firms in the U.S. light vehicle market from 1998 to 2013, we find significant empirical support for our general premise. Using Tobit regression analysis, we find that automotive firms present diverging motivations for lobbying depending on whether they attend to historical or social aspirations for sales performance. © The Author(s) 2019.
Adaptive CU Mode Selection in HEVC Intra Prediction: A Deep Learning Approach
(Birkhauser Boston) Kuanar, S.; Rao, K. R.; Bilas, Monalisa; Bredow, J.; Bilas, Monalisa
The computational time of HEVC encoder is increased mainly because of the hierarchical quad-tree-based structure, recursive coding units, and the exhaustive prediction search up to 35 modes. These advances improve the coding efficiency, but result in a very high computational complexity. Furthermore, selecting the optimal modes among all prediction modes is necessary for subsequent rate-distortion optimization process. Therefore, we propose a convolution neural network-based algorithm which learns the region-wise image features and performs a classification job. These classification results are later used in the encoder downstream systems for finding the optimal coding units in each of the tree blocks, and subsequently reduce the number of prediction modes. The experimental results show that our proposed learning-based algorithm reduces the encoder time saving up to 66.89% with a minimal Bjøntegaard delta bit rate (BD-BR) loss of 1.31% over the state-of-the-art machine learning approaches. Furthermore, our method also reduces the mode selection by 45.83% with respect to the HEVC baseline. ©2019, Springer Science + Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Organizational Intellectual Capital and its Relation to Frontline Service Employee Innovative Behavior: Consumer Value Co-Creation Behavior as a Moderator
(Springer Verlag) Chou, C. Y.; Huang, C. H.; Lin, Tzu-An; Lin, Tzu-An
Frontline service employee innovative behavior is “the moment of truth” that significantly affects organizational performance. Yet, little research has investigated the effect of organizational intellectual capital on frontline service employee innovative behavior. This study used SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 20.0 to examine the structural model and the hypothetical effects of (1) different dimensions of organizational intellectual capital on frontline service employee innovative behavior and (2) consumer value co-creation on frontline service employee innovative behavior along the dimensions of organizational intellectual capital. A total of 282 valid questionnaires were collected from frontline service employees working at a travel agency located in Taipei, Taiwan. Human capital and customer capital were found to positively affect frontline service employee innovative behavior. The interactions between consumer value co-creation and human and customer capital had a significant moderating effect on frontline service employee innovative behavior. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
The Maximum Principle for Global Solutions of Stochastic Stackelberg Differential Games
Bensoussan, Alain; Chen, Shaokuan; Sethi, Suresh P. (UT Dallas); 0000-0003-0743-498X (Bensoussan, A)
For stochastic Stackelberg differential games played by a leader and a follower, there are several solution concepts in terms of the players' information sets. In this paper we derive the maximum principle for the leader's global Stackelberg solution under the adapted closed-loop memoryless information structure, where the term global signifies the leader's domination over the entire game duration. As special cases, we study linear quadratic Stackelberg games under both adapted open-loop and adapted closed-loop memoryless information structures, as well as the resulting Riccati equations.
A Secure Healthcare System: From Design to Implementation
(Elsevier Science B.V.) Cankaya, Ebru Celikel; Kywe, Than; Cankaya, Ebru Celikel; Kywe, Than
We introduce the design and development of a comprehensive electronic health record system (EHR) that incorporates AES encryption to assure security. Our work adopts a didactic approach to introduce the formal design steps of an EHR with its underlying database from a software engineering perspective. For this, we adopt two formal development methodologies as software engineering perspective and database development approach and combine the two to present a guideline to design and develop similar projects in other domains. For informative purposes, the steps of the development process are formalized based on database ER-model, and the final design is normalized into 3NF. We provide insight on rationale for employing specific methodologies, and using particular material and tools. Published by Elsevier B.V.
A Novel Soundproof Ventilation Plant Design with High Performance and No Energy Consumption
Yu, Ya-Lin; Chao, Yu-Tin; Lee, Lai-Chung; Yen, Jia-Yush; Fan, Yun-Chiu
This paper proposes an advanced approach for designing soundproof windows with good ventilation. The structure of this study is based on three acoustics theorem and can reduce noise and ventilate the space at the same time. Using this structure on wall can help also avoid noise interference effect indoors and increase air quality. This study uses plants as appropriate soundproof structure to improve carbon dioxide content for providing better living environment. Simulations of the sound field and CFD demonstrate that the structure has good performance on noise reduction and effect of ventilation.
Optimal Ordering and Disposing Policies in the Presence of an Overconfident Retailer: A Stackelberg Game
Wang, Zhigang; Zhang, Zhenchao; Li, Chunfa; Xu, Lei; You, Chang
This paper investigates the impact of the retailer's overconfident behavior on supply chain performance. We start with a basic model on the rational newsvendor model and investigate the retailer's optimal ordering decision and expected profit. Next, we extend the basic model and introduce an overconfident retailer. We find that the retailer's overconfident behavior does not necessarily damage the supply chain compared with the basic model when the overconfident level does not exceed a threshold. We also design the cooperation and buyback mechanism and conduct numerical analysis to compare the manufacturer's and retailer's expected profits and real profits with those in the basic newsvendor model. It can achieve Pareto improvement in the supply chain when the overconfident level is low. When the retailer's overconfident level exceeds a threshold, the retailer's ordering decision cannot make the whole supply chain sustainable development.
The Liberty Medical Group
Wallace, Fallon D.; Herl, Keith; Howard, William (Bill); American College of Healthcare Executives, North Texas Chapter
The Liberty Medical Foundation is currently experiencing multiple challenges internally and externally that must be addressed immediately to avoid being forced out of the healthcare market by the competitive pressures of its business rivals. The major internal challenges include the $200 million loss in 1997 and 1998 along with the declining satisfaction of its staff and patients. The substantial loss due to external competition and internal operations is unsustainable and requires an instantaneous solution to rebound and become profitable again. Selecting the appropriate strategy to address the financial issues along with continuous monitoring and improvement are needed to prevent the disastrous losses of the past from recurring in the future.
Outsourcing Information Security: Contracting Issues and Security Implications
(INFORMS) Cezar, Asunur; Cavusoglu, Huseyin; Raghunathan, Srinivasan
A unique challenge in information security outsourcing is that neither the outsourcing firm nor the managed security service provider (MSSP) perfectly observes the outcome, the occurrence of a security breach, of prevention effort. Detection of security breaches often requires specialized effort. The current practice is to outsource both prevention and detection to the same MSSP. Some security experts have advocated outsourcing prevention and detection to different MSSPs. We show that the former outsourcing contract leads to a significant disincentive to provide detection effort. The latter contract alleviates this problem but introduces misalignment of incentives between the firm and the MSSPs and eliminates the advantages offered by complementarity between prevention and detection functions, which may lead to a worse outcome than the current contract. We propose a new contract that is superior to these two on various dimensions.
Social Networks and the Diffusion of User-Generated Content: Evidence from YouTube
Susarla, Anjana; Oh, Jeong-ha (Cath); Tan, Yong
This paper is motivated by the success of YouTube, which is attractive to content creators as well as corporations for its potential to rapidly disseminate digital content. The networked structure of interactions on YouTube and the tremendous variation in the success of videos posted online lends itself to an inquiry of the role of social influence. Using a unique data set of video information and user information collected from YouTube, we find that social interactions are influential not only in determining which videos become successful but also on the magnitude of that impact. We also find evidence for a number of mechanisms by which social influence is transmitted, such as (i) a preference for conformity and homophily and (ii) the role of social networks in guiding opinion formation and directing product search and discovery. Econometrically, the problem in identifying social influence is that individuals' choices depend in great part upon the choices of other individuals, referred to as the reflection problem. Another problem in identification is to distinguish between social contagion and user heterogeneity in the diffusion process. Our results are in sharp contrast to earlier models of diffusion, such as the Bass model, that do not distinguish between different social processes that are responsible for the process of diffusion. Our results are robust to potential self-selection according to user tastes, temporal heterogeneity and the reflection problem. Implications for researchers and managers are discussed.
ACHE-North Texas case study report
(2012-03-23) Marston, Carson; Shah, Raj; Singh, Richa; Subhash, Archana
Evaluation of the ABC health system’s proposed facilities for expansion was conducted on the basis of selected factors. Detailed analyses were done using available financial and volume statistics. A weighted matrix was structured based on the evaluating factors like projected population growth, relative market share, operating margin, net revenue and cost of project. Additionally relevant market forces were also taken into consideration to finally rank these projects for investment. Since a major reason for expansion has been lack of open beds and capacity constraints, we have also included evaluation on the basis of inpatient volume as an important factor. The entire expansion project of ABC is directed towards increasing quality of care and access while maintaining costs. The recommendation in our ranking accounts for all these factors and helps to build ABC health system’s position strategically and financially. Discussions involve transitioning ABC’s expansion strategy from an asset management view to an operational strategy that would be effective in the long run.
Pricing Models for Online Advertising: CPM vs. CPC
(2012-09) Asdemir, K.; Kumar, Nanda; Jacob, V. S. (Varghese S.); 0000 0000 4526 9637 (Jacob, VS); 94021959‏ (Jacob, VS)
Online advertising has transformed the advertising industry with its measurability and accountability. Online software and services supported by online advertising is becoming a reality as evidenced by the success of Google and its initiatives. Therefore, the choice of a pricing model for advertising becomes a critical issue for these firms. We present a formal model of pricing models in online advertising using the principal-agent framework to study the two most popular pricing models: input-based cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and performance-based cost per click-through (CPC). We identify four important factors that affect the preference of CPM to the CPC model, and vice versa. In particular, we highlight the interplay between uncertainty in the decision environment, value of advertising, cost of mistargeting advertisements, and alignment of incentives. These factors shed light on the preferred online-advertising pricing model for publishers and advertisers under different market conditions. © 2012 INFORMS.

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