bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Service Systems and Requisite Variety
Authors: Godsiff Phil 
Published: April 2012

Purpose: This conceptual paper will explore the application of an aspect of systems theory, the Law of Requisite Variety (LRV) to service organisations. Design/methodology/approach: The notion of a system has a strong history in management; in searching for theory to provide substance to service systems research the concept can provide valuable insights. Systems theory and thinking is the study of complex adaptive wholes; the focus is on the whole rather than the parts. The LRV, introduced by Ashby, concerns the behaviour of systems. The LRV states that the organisation must be able to deal with the variety introduced by the external environment, in order to remain viable. Understanding the nature of customer variety and how to deal with it is important for service organisations since variety provides both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper seeks to explore and operationalise variety in a service context. Findings: A new service systems model is proposed building on the LRV, systems concepts and on current developments in service classification. Originality/value: To further the use of systems thinking in service science and to explore how the LRV could be applied in this context. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Dynamic Pricing and Inventory Policies: A Strategic Analysis of Dual Channel Supply Chain Design
Authors: Moon Yongma , Yao Tao , Friesz Terry L. 
Published: April 2012

This paper presents a continuous time optimization model for a dynamic pricing and inventory control problem in a dual-channel supply chain system. We consider a manufacturer's redesign of traditional channel structures, based on customer behaviors, by engaging in direct Internet sales. While the manufacturer and its retailer set optimal pricing and inventory policies dynamically, this study considers both vertical integration and competition of two channels. For the former case, a continuous time optimal control problem is modeled, while for the latter a differential quasi-variational inequality (DQVI) formulation is applied to solve as a Cournot-Nash-Bertrand game. We provide implications for optimal strategies and note the effect of a customer acceptance index. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Markov Decision Processes for Optimizing Human Workflows
Authors: Espinosa Enrique D. , Frausto Juan , Rivera Ernesto J. 
Published: April 2012

Workflows are used by domain analysts as a tool to describe the synchronization of activities in a business domain. The Business Process Management Notation (BPMN) has become a standard to characterize Workflows. Nevertheless, BPMN alone does not provide tools for aligning business models and IT architectures. Currently, there is not a method which promotes making decisions based on a technique with a probabilistic basis for providing financial value to a [human] workflow. If such method could exist, it would help the domain analyst to understand what sections of the business and IT architecture could be re-engineered for adding value. Markov Decision Processes (MDP's) can be the centerpiece of such a method. MDP's are introduced as a means to pinpoint assets to be designed, managed, and continuously improved, while enhancing business agility and operational performance. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Discovering Experts, Experienced Persons and Specialists for IT Infrastructure Support
Authors: Palshikar Girish Keshav , Vin Harrick M. , Saradhi V. Vijaya , Mudassar Mohammed 
Published: April 2012

Workforce analytics (i.e., statistical analysis, modeling and mining of HR data) is particularly important in service industries. Service industries are people-intensive and the knowledge and expertise of the people within an organization is a strategic resource critical for success. Performance of employees in a service organization is directly related to the customer satisfaction and creation of value. In this paper, we adopt a domain-driven data mining approach and begin by raising specific business questions in workforce the analysis with a focus on IT Infrastructure Support (ITIS) services and then propose solutions for them. We distinguish between three aspects of what makes people valuable in an ITIS organization: expertise, specialization and experience. We propose novel formalizations of these notions and discuss rigorous statistical and optimization based algorithms to discover these 3 types of people (along with their work areas). In particular, for the important problem of expert discovery, we propose two separate algorithms: one statistical and another based on data envelopment analysis technique from optimization. The approaches have been implemented and have produced satisfactory results on more than 25 real-life ITIS datasets, one of which we use for illustration. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Optimization of Multi-skill Call Centers Contracts and Work-shifts
Authors: Cordone Roberto , Piselli Andrea , Ravizza Paolo , Righini Giovanni 
Published: April 2012

Call centers are complex systems in which it is essential to optimize the trade-off between the service level provided to the customers and the cost for the personnel. In this paper we describe a quantitative approach to choose the most suitable contracts to hire the call center operators. The aim is to organize their work-shifts and their rest periods, including lunch-breaks, in such a way that the mix of skills obtained in each time slot is as close as possible to a desired level, estimated according to demand forecasts. The approach here proposed is based on a heuristic method which exploits a general purpose linear programming solver. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
A SAT View on New Service Development
Authors: Lin Fu-Ren , Hsieh Pei-Shan 
Published: April 2012

New service development (NSD) is getting important for companies that wish to gain a competitive advantage on service-driven markets. While research on NSD has grown rapidly over the last decade, many studies have been highly fragmented and concentrated on different innovation issues. Few studies have focused on the stages, activities, and techniques of NSD. In addition, the NSD process is delivered through service value net, and can often be carried out by multiple companies. Therefore, this study aims to provide a SAT (Stage-Activity-Technique) framework for NSD stages, activities, and techniques based on a literature review and trend analysis. This study divides the NSD process into five stages: service identification, service value net formation, service modeling, service implementation, and service commercialization. In addition, the NSD process is more likely to be spiral in form for new services that are examined. The NSD process is also likely to be refined by service providers and customers to incorporate their detailed requirements and integrate service value into future development processes. The SAT model can assist service designers and engineers in developing new services by providing a structured NSD process and identifying techniques for activities in the NSD process. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Better Place: A Case Study of the Reciprocal Relations Between Sustainability and Service
Authors: Wolfson Adi , Tavor Dorith , Mark Shlomo , Schermann Michael , Krcmar Helmut 
Published: April 2012

Facing rising energy costs and the heightened awareness of environmental issues expressed by society and encapsulated in regulations, sustainability is a major requirement for designing and operating future service systems. In addition, sustainability serves as a key driver for profitable services. Restructuring service processes to meet environmental regulations should be seen as the opportunity to design processes that consume less and thus cost less. Furthermore, sustainable services require service providers to incorporate a holistic perspective that incorporates service provisioning, the service network, and the service customer. In addition, designing sustainable services now promotes the transfer of sustainability as a service from the current generation to the next. We analyze Better Place, a company in the electric mobility industry, to demonstrate the potentials and challenges of sustainable services. We show that sustainability is a major driver of service design. Furthermore, Better Place shows that understanding and clarifying sustainability raises important methodological issues for service design by highlighting the complexity of designing services in a multi-actor value network. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Offshoring of Information-Based Services: Structural Breaks in Industry Life Cycles
Authors: Hahn Eugene D. , Bunyaratavej Kraiwinee 
Published: April 2012

The emergence of widespread offshoring of information-based services is arguably one of the more transformative business phenomena of the last ten years. A growing body of research has examined the firm-level drivers and location factors (i.e., the “whys” and “wheres”) of services offshoring. However, little empirical research has examined the temporal dynamics (or “whens”) of services offshoring. Adopting industry life cycle theory as a framework and a Bayesian methodological approach, we explore two key research questions: (i) when do different categories of offshoring services provision change from being emergent sectors to more mature ones relative to one another? and (ii) how do different types of offshoring activity differentially progress through this sequence? Employing a database of 1,420 offshore services FDI projects, we find that the relative skill level and the information sensitivity of the specific service category are associated with the temporal sequence of industry life cycle progression such that activities with decreased information sensitivity are offshored earlier than those with greater information sensitivity. We draw implications for our findings in terms of future waves of service offshoring. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Scenario Analysis of Web Service Composition based on Multi-Criteria Mathematical Goal Programming
Authors: Cui LiYing , Kumara Soundar , Lee Dongwon 
Published: April 2012

This paper addresses the web service composition problem considering multi-criteria regarding quality of services (QoS). Three different scenarios of multi-criteria mathematical programming models are explored under the framework of network based analysis in web service composition. This work takes care of the issues pertaining to inputs and outputs matching of web services and Quality-of-Service (QoS) at the same time. The multi-criteria programming models are explored to select the desirable service composition in a variety of categories in accordance with customers' preferences in three different scenarios: (1) Optimal, (2) Compromised optimal, and (3) Acceptable. This set of multi-criteria models have both advantages and disadvantages comparing with each other, and can be used as different solvers in the network based service composition framework. The proposed regular multi-criteria programming (MCP) models are used in Scenario (1): Optimal. The proposed multi-criteria goal programming for optimal composition (MCGPO) and multi-criteria goal programming for non-optimal solution (MCGPN) models are designed for Scenarios (2): Compromised optimal and (3) Acceptable respectively. And they can find a compromised composition based on the trade-off of customer's preference on the QoS goals in case that the optimal composition satisfying both functional and QoS constraints does not exist in the network. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Hyper-Networking of Customers, Providers, and Resources Drives New Service Business Designs: e-Commerce and Beyond
Authors: Hsu Cheng 
Published: April 2012

What drives new service business designs? More precisely, what could be a generic strategy to grow value cocreation among persons? The emerging network science and service science may offer an answer: comprehensively connecting, or hyper-networking, the customers, providers, and resources via digital means. This connectionist perspective has led to the Digital Connections Scaling (DCS) theory, which suggests that new service business designs arise from thrusting the connections up to span the population, deepening down to facilitate individual persons' life cycle needs, and cutting across business designs and domains to transform them. This paper develops the DCS theory into a generic strategy for designing new service businesses and justifies the strategy with empirical evidence taken from the field of e-commerce and social networking. The study then applies the proposed strategy to analyze what new models and paradigms may come next. An information systems design framework for implementing the strategy is also proposed. [Service Science, ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]
Two Audits of the Diagnosis of Oral Cancer and the Two-Week Rule following Referrals from Primary Care Practitioners in Newcastle
Authors: Miller Cara CS , Hierons Rebecca J 
Published: April 2012

Aim The aim of the two audits was to evaluate the success of the two-week rule in the oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) department at the Newcastle General Hospital (NGH) and then subsequently in the oral surgery and oral medicine departments at Newcastle Dental Hospital (NDH). Methods All two-week referrals seen at the NGH over a one-year period were examined retrospectively. An identical subsequent audit was carried out at the NDH over a second one-year period, also retrospectively. Results In the initial audit at the NGH, a total of 63 two-week referrals were received during the one-year period analysed. Of these, 57 (90%) were seen within the appropriate time period, and 60 (95%) conformed to the Department of Health guidelines. Seven (11%) of the 63 referred patients were diagnosed with head and neck cancer, indicating a positive oncology detection rate of 11%. In the later audit at the NDH, 49 urgent referrals were assessed. Forty-three of the 49 referrals (88%) were seen within the appropriate time period and thirty-nine (80%) were compliant with the referring guidelines. Forty-five patients attended for assessment and the resultant positive oncology detection rate for these patients was 7%. In both audits, the patients diagnosed as having positive oncology results all had referrals that were compliant with the Department of Health guidelines. Conclusions Both of these audits indicated that the national guidelines for two-week referrals were usually appropriately followed in the two departments that were audited. However, in the future, further education of referring practitioners should ensure that these guidelines are followed better, making the service provided more efficient for all concerned.
Brutal Mathematics: Narrative Structure in the Films of Chang Cheh
Authors: de Seife Ethan 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
In the years shortly before Chang Cheh's death, the not-insubstantial segment of the Internet populated by Hong Kong film enthusiasts lit up with the possibly apocryphal news that the director, who had made scores of dynamic martial-arts films from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, had proclaimed that he would retire only after he had directed his 101st film.1 Alas, Chang did not live to see that milestone: he died in 2002, nine years removed from directing his 97th and final film, Ninja in Ancient China. The fact that he or someone else allegedly suggested as the capstone to his career a bold numerical marker is oddly suggestive of a curious patterning that recurs in Chang's many films.
Cinema, Historiography, and Identities in Taiwan: Hou Hsiao-Hsien's A City of Sadness
Authors: Rawnsley Ming-Yeh T. 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
In 1989, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's A City of Sadness (beiqing chengshi) won the Golden Lion Award in Venice. As the first Taiwanese movie that received the highest recognition by a major European film festival, A City of Sadness attracted serious media attention on the island. Nevertheless, Taiwan viewers' immediate reaction towards the film was polarized. For example, Liao (1999: 85-114) was bitterly disappointed that it did not seize the historical moment of democratization of the 1980s and produce a more aggressive Taiwanese nationalist discourse. On the other hand, Qi (2000: 331-332) argued that Hou's work has become a critical social text and thus it has inspired multidimensional discourses. A City of Sadness sparked a fierce cultural debate about Taiwan's past and its relationship with mainland China that is paralleled only by the passionate deliberation triggered by nativist literature in the 1970s.
The Education Center at The Wall and the Rewriting of History
Authors: Lair Meredith H. 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
This article examines plans for “The Education Center at The Wall,” a new facility on the National Mall that will present the history of the Vietnam War as a series of military engagements devoid of political opposition. I argue that this commemorative site promises the intellectual weight of a museum while providing only the emotional impact of a patriotic shrine. By focusing on individual acts of heroism and sacrifice by American soldiers, the Education Center will enable visitors to re-imagine the Vietnam War, which was once regarded as an American tragedy, as both a “good war” and the ennobling “lost cause” of the twentieth century.
The Effect of Withdrawal Rate on the Uniformity of Edgewater Intrusion
Authors: Muskat M. 
Published: April 2012

Abstract
Calculations are reported on the differential sensitivity of the updip invasion of oil strata of varying permeability to the driving pressure differential. It is assumed that the water-oil interfaces advance with sharp fronts, or that the microscopic displacement efficiency is independent of rate and capillary pressure effects. It is found that, under such conditions, limitations of withdrawal rates will not greatly inhibit the "fingering" and bypassing tendency through high permeability strata unless the differential fluid head across the original oil column is of the order of or exceeds about 80 per cent of the driving pressure differential. In practice, such restrictions will be feasible only for oil reservoirs and aquifers of high permeability and dip, but may develop automatically under combined gas injection and water drive operations.

Introduction
A commonly expressed view regarding the intrusion of edgewaters into oil producing formations is that the geometry of such advance is rate sensitive. Specifically, it has been suggested that high rates of advance, stimulated by rapid withdrawals, will lead to "fingering" and an irregular type of invasion, whereas at low withdrawal rates the water encroachment will be more uniform. Two factors tend to support this view. One is the resultant effect of capillary pressure and gravity gradients in the displacement processes involved in water intrusion, which are magnified at low rates of flow so as to improve the recovery efficiency. The other is the direct retarding effect of the rising water head as it advances upslope into the producing area.
Capillary pressure forces give rise to a rate sensitivity of the oil recovery by water displacement in uniform strata as well as differential effects in non-uniform formations. These are basically independent of the effect of gravity and would also occur in horizontal beds or when the oil and water have the same density.
Well-Performance Relationships in Heavy-Foamy-Oil Reservoirs
Authors: Kumar R.. , Mahadevan J.. 
Published: April 2012

Summary
Inflow performance in some heavy-oil reservoirs is not well understood because the fluid properties differ from conventional behavior. In this work, we develop an expression for inflow performance as a function of properties of foamy oils (e.g., density, viscosity, solution gas/oil ratio, and formation volume factor). We define two parameters, the endpoint entrained-gas fraction and the apparent bubblepoint, adapted from previous studies, to account for the extent of entrained-gas fraction in the liquid. The fluid properties are modified to account for the entrained gas and then incorporated in the equations describing flow from a reservoir at pseudosteady state.
The results of our study show that the entrained gas and the apparent bubblepoint impact the fluid properties and, therefore, the inflow performance at the bottomhole conditions. In the presence of entrained gas, the density of the fluid decreases and the formation volume factor increases. Both these properties show an inflection below the bubblepoint pressure, and the solution gas/oil ratio shows a constant value until the apparent bubblepoint is reached. The inflow-performance curve, therefore, displays an inflection as opposed to the monotonically changing curve normally observed with conventional oils. The outflow-performance curve is lowered when the effect of entrained gas is included, caused by lower density; hence, the nodal systems analysis predicts a greater production rate for a foamy-oil reservoir compared with a conventional reservoir.