bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
INCENTIVES, UNCERTAINTY, AND RISK IN THE NEWSBOY PROBLEM
Authors: Atkinson Anthony A. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis study explores the motivational consequences of an incentive device based on standard setting. It is shown that standard setting induces a wealth‐seeking manager to undertake decisions that, in the manager's judgment, will improve the position of the owner relative to implementing the standard. Conditions under which it is rational for the owner to allow the manager to choose and implement decisions are discussed. Finally, consideration is given to an alternative incentive mechanism in which the manager's decisions are manipulated through variation of the incentive mechanism.
NEGOTIATED TRANSFER PRICING AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN ORGANIZATIONS
Authors: Ackelsberg Robert , Yukl Gary 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTAn experiment was conducted to test hypotheses about conflict related to negotiated transfer pricing. A business game with repeated decision periods was used to simulate transfer pricing negotiations between corporate divisions. When the evaluation of division executives emphasized corporate profits rather than divisional profits, there was more smoothing and integrative problem solving and less aggressive‐competitive behavior, relations between the divisions were better, and more cooperation was observed to occur in other decisions unrelated to the transfer pricing. Moreover, corporate profits from the transfer product and its derivative product tended to be larger. All of these effects were most pronounced when the transfer product was important to both divisions as a source of profits.
MANAGING ACADEMIC INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROJECTS*
Authors: Birnbaum Philip H. , Newell William T. , Saxberg Borje O. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis field study provides variables that can be used by practitioners as action levers and by future researchers as the basis for theoretical development. Conclusions from relevant literature and findings from interviews with interdisciplinary research management identified forty variables that were viewed as important to interdisciplinary research project success. After adjusting the data for reliability attenuation, these variables were further analyzed to identify the best prediction equation. The findings suggested that project age or the longevity of the project and open discussion of disagreements were the best predictors of performance.
PERCEIVED USEFULNESS OF INFORMATION: A PSYCHOMETRIC EXAMINATION*
Authors: Larcker David F. , Lessig V. Parker 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe perceived usefulness of information is an important construct for the design of management information systems. Yet an examination of existing measures of perceived usefulness shows that the instruments developed have not been validated nor has their reliability been verified. In this paper a new instrument for measuring two dimensions of perceived usefulness is developed. The results of an empirical study designed to test the reliability and construct validity of this instrument in a capital‐budgeting setting are presented.
THE EVOLVING ROLES OF MODELS IN DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS*
Authors: Bonczek Robert H. , Holsapple Clyde W. , Whinston Andrew B. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractAn important aspect of decision support systems (DSS) is their utilization of computational models. To illustrate the evolving roles of models in decision support systems, several representative systems are reviewed. These illustrations reveal three major interfaces that must be considered by a decision support system's designer. Successful treatment of these DSS interfaces depends upon two types of languages: one for directing computations and one for directing data manipulation. Each language type is presented as forming a spectrum of languages. Combined, the two spectra provide a classification scheme for decision support systems. This scheme is both useful as a framework for comparative study of decision support systems and also suggestive of directions for future research and developments in the decision support field.
A PATH ANALYSIS OF R&D TEAM COORDINATION AND PERFORMANCE
Authors: Dailey Robert C. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractPresent theory and empirical research on behavioral phenomena in R&D management are both noncumulative and nonintegrative. The present research attempts to fill a portion of this lacuna by empirically examining the relationship between R&D team coordination and performance and how it is influenced by task certainty, task interdependence, team cohesiveness, and team size. The results of the study indicate that coordination in R&D teams is related to their performance. Further, it was found that all of the variables with the exception of team size were antecedents of either team coordination or performance. These and other results are discussed in the context of group dynamics and past research.
ANALYZING PREFERENCES FOR INVESTMENT PROJECTS: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING APPROACH*
Authors: Soutar Geoffrey N. , Ascui Alvaro F. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractMost investment analysis methods use some type of benefit/cost analysis procedure to determine project desirability. This paper examines an alternative method that uses multidimensional scaling methods to determine project desirability on the basis of preference rather than economic feasibility. The underlying model is outlined, and the results of a pilot study designed to determine the usefulness of the proposed methodology are outlined. It is concluded that these suggested procedures are useful adjuncts to conventional methods and that they should be considered by decision makers.
SIMULATING FOOD SHOPPERS' ECONOMIC LOSSES AS A RESULT OF SUPERMARKET UNAVAILABILITY*
Authors: Ferguson Carl E. , Mason J. Barry , Wilkinson J. B. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThis study illustrates a methodology as a first step toward the development of a benefit/cost model for the evaluation of the Federal Trade Commission regulation of the unavailability of advertised specials in food stores. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to estimate economic losses to shoppers from unavailable advertised specials. Product unavailability in the model occurred as a result of alternative managerial decisions about purchase‐order quantities for advertised specials and shelf‐stocking policies combined with probabilistic purchase decisions by customers. The model generated probabilistic individual customer and management behavioral responses to unavailability during a one‐year time period. As a result, the derived economic losses to customers from unavailability were based on alternative assumptions about managerial behavior in conjunction with empirically derived shopper responses to advertised specials. This study thus provides some idea of the amount of damages being caused by the excessive unavailability of advertised specials. Aggregate customer losses were found to vary primarily with respect to management's purchase‐order quantity of advertised specials.
A COMPARISON OF WEIGHTING METHODS IN POWER PLANT SITING*
Authors: Hobbs Benjamin F. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractThe insufficient attention that too often is paid to the characteristics required of attribute weights prevents multiattribute decision rules from accurately representing preferences. The weighting summation or linear model requires weights to be proportional to the relative value of unit changes in their attribute value functions. Only then will weights accurately reflect the trade‐offs decision makers are willing to make.A number of methods of choosing weights are critiqued from this perspective. Applications of weighting methods in power plant siting are surveyed, and a siting study of western Maryland is presented. Two weighting methods were used, one deriving weights from trade‐offs made by decision makers and the other asking decision makers to choose weights on a scale of 0 to 10. The locations picked by the two methods differ strikingly.
DEVELOPING MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH TARGET MARKET RESEARCH
Authors: Krampf Robert F. , Heinlein Albert C. 
Published: June 2007

This paper describes research undertaken by a large midwestern university to determine the needs of the market it serves, to ascertain the image of the university, to develop procedures for identifying potential students with a high probability of matriculating and procedures for increasing the probability of matriculation.The population studied was prospective students who submitted ACT profiles. A modified Fishbein instrument was used for measuring their image of the university. Factor analysis was used to reduce 102 ACT variables to 20. These variables plus others developed through literature search and the image study were included in the set of input variables used in multiple discriminant analysis. The resulting classification functions provided a means for identifying variables important to each individual's matriculation decision and providing them with information designed to increase his/her awareness of the attractiveness of the university.
Applications and Implementation DETERMINING THE REWARDS SALESPEOPLE VALUE: A COMPARISON OF METHODS*
Authors: Churchill Gilbert A. , Pecotich Anthony 
Published: June 2007

Although salesmanagers can attempt to motivate salespeople by manipulating their rewards, these manipulations will fail if salespeople do not value the rewards and their levels. Methods for determining valued rewards can therefore be important to those charged with their determination.This study compares three measurement schemes for assessing salespeople's valences for various rewards: functional measurement, conjoint analysis, and thermometer scaling. All three schemes produce similar conclusions as to how rewards are valued and the acceptable tradeoffs among them. Thermometer scaling outperformed the others with respect to the time it took to secure the judgments and the palatability of the task, while conjoint measurement performed least well in these respects.
APPLICATION OF AN EXPECTED COVERING MODEL TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN*
Authors: Daskin Mark S. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Act specifies the fraction of all demands for service that must be reached in a given amount of time for urban and rural areas. The conditions have traditionally been interpreted to apply to the case in which all EMS vehicles are available to respond to demands. A model that considers the probability of a vehicle being busy is formulated and model properties are briefly discussed. The model is then applied to two problems: a 55‐node test case and a 33‐node census tract representation of Austin, Texas. The implications of the new model for EMS system design are discussed as are the limitations of the modeling approach.
AD HOC MODEL BUILDING USING TIME‐VARYING PARAMETER MODELS*
Authors: Bretschneider Stuart I. , Gorr Wilpen L. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTDecision support for managers and policy makers, such as required in planning and evaluation efforts, often requires ad hoc behavioral modeling to account for context‐specific phenomena and to handle data limitations. This paper introduces a systematic approach useful for meeting these requirements in which time‐varying parameter estimation plays an important role. A case study evaluating the impacts of public policy actions on residential natural gas conservation illustrates the approach.
A SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE JAPANESE JUST‐IN‐TIME TECHNIQUE (WITH KANBANS) FOR A MULTILINE, MULTISTAGE PRODUCTION SYSTEM
Authors: Huang Philip Y. , Rees Loren P. , Taylor Bernard W. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe Japanese “just‐in‐time with kanban” technique reduces in‐process inventory to absolute minimal levels, in concert with the Japanese belief that inventory is an unnecessary evil. Due to the success of Japanese firms that employ this type of system, American firms would like to import this technique and emulate Japanese successes. But this Japanese success may be attributable not only to the just‐in‐time with kanban technique but also to the production environment in which the technique is employed. This paper simulates the just‐in‐time with kanban technique for a multiline, multistage production system in order to determine its adaptability to an American production environment that might include such characteristics as variable processing times, variable master production scheduling, and imbalances between production stages. The results have practical implications for those firms considering adoption of the Japanese technique.
MULTIVARIATE NORMALITY AND A BOND RATING DECISION MODEL*
Authors: Watson Collin J. , Stock Duane , Watson Kent D. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTAn assumption of multivariate normality for a decision model is validated in this paper. Measurements for the independent variables of a bond rating model were taken from a sample of municipal bonds. Three methods for examining both univariate and multivariate normality (including normal probability plots) are described and applied to the bond data. The results imply, after applying normalizing transformations to four of the variables, that the data reasonably approximate multivariate normality, thereby validating a distributional requirement of the discriminant‐analysis‐based decision model. The methods described in the paper may also be used by others interested in examining multivariate normality assumptions of decision models.
THE EFFECTS OF VARIABLE AND FIXED TRANSACTION COSTS ON OPTIMAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS
Authors: Lazimy Rafael , Levy Haim 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper studies the impact of variable and fixed transaction costs on investment decisions under conditions of risk. The decision model is first formulated as a mixed‐integer nonlinear program. The following subjects are then examined: the structure of the investment frontier facing the investor and the effects of transaction costs on this frontier, the impact of transaction costs on the investor's optimal investment strategy, and the conditions for the equilibrium structure of risky asset prices and risk‐return relationships. The main finding is that the relaxation of the assumption of the absence of transaction costs eliminates some of the most unattractive implications of the classic capital asset pricing model (CAPM) while preserving the more attractive implications of this model. Also, our model provides explanations for some discrepancies between the theoretical CAPM and empirical findings and, therefore, is a step toward narrowing the gap between theory and practice.
COGNITIVE STYLE AND THE USEFULNESS OF INFORMATION*
Authors: Blaylock Bruce K. , Rees Loren P. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe desirability of a merger/acquisition alternative depends in part on the perceptions of the decision maker. What sources of information are “useful” to the decision maker & Does the set of useful information remain constant for all decision makers; if not, do individuals using similar information sets have similar information processing characteristics? Do these sets vary as feedback is obtained during the decision process? To answer these questions, graduate students participated in a modified Delphi experiment, and the resulting data were analyzed by the two‐way aligned‐ranks nonparametric test. These test results affirm that in a merger/acquisition scenario, decision makers with different cognitive styles prefer different sets of information and these sets vary dynamically as feedback is incorporated in the decision‐making process. Furthermore, information that contains worker and community welfare considerations is identified as “useful” five times more frequently by decision makers with a “feeling” cognitive style than those with a “thinking” style.
MODELING DEMAND DURING LEAD TIME*
Authors: Bagchi Uttarayan , Hayya Jack C. , Ord J. Keith 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper treats some of the important considerations in constructing an analytical model for the distribution of demand during lead time. It presents a formal model that can be developed along one of two lines. The first has order size and order intensity leading to a compound distribution of period demand, then period demand and lead time giving rise to a compound distribution of demand during lead time. The second has order intensity and lead time giving rise to a compound distribution of lead‐time order intensity, then lead‐time order intensity and order size leading to a compound distribution of demand during lead time. The paper also condenses the state of the art in a table and proposes some simple classification schemes that could help researchers extend that state of the art.
LOCATION OF QUALITY INSPECTION STATIONS: AN EXPERIMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF FIVE NORMATIVE HEURISTICS
Authors: Peters Michael H. , Williams William W. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTA number of heuristic decision rules have been proposed to aid in the location of quality inspection stations within a production line. Although these rules apparently enjoy an intuitive appeal, as yet no empirical investigation of their individual efficacies has been undertaken. This research identifies the relations between various cost and/or process characteristics and a designated “operative condition” that motivates the apparent rationale of five of these rules‐of‐thumb. Experimental results suggest that for several of the heuristics the operative condition was not associated with the performance of the rule. In addition, constraints in the processing environment were found to influence the effectiveness of the heuristics.
DESIGNING HIGH‐CONTACT SERVICE SYSTEMS: APPLICATION TO BRANCHES OF A SAVINGS AND LOAN*
Authors: Chase Richard B. , Northcraft Gregory B. , Wolf Gerrit 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe customer‐contact model represents one of the few conceptually based approaches for designing service systems. This paper develops that concept further for high‐contact systems, relative to efficiency and effectiveness notions. Four design features (contact technologies, contact training, data bases, and contact roles) are developed and a simple design methodology (built around the four design features) is presented. A demonstration of the design methodology is provided through its applications to branches of a savings and loan. Areas for additional theoretical and practical refinement of the model and the desirability of multidisciplinary research are discussed.
EMPIRICAL AND JUDGMENT‐BASED SALES‐FORCE DECISION MODELS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS*
Authors: LaForge Raymond W. , Cravens David W. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTMultiple‐predictor empirical and single‐predictor judgment‐based models represent the two basic types of sales‐force decision models (SDMs). The important similarities and differences between the two modeling approaches are identified and discussed. The SDM literature is reviewed to determine how each model type has been applied and to evaluate previous attempts at model validation. A research study designed to compare the normative sales‐call allocations generated from each modeling approach is presented. Study results indicate that empirical and judgment‐based SDMs would produce similar normative guidelines. The implications of this finding are discussed.
Notes and Communications ON SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS IN DECISION THEORY*
Authors: Schneller George O. , Sphicas Georghios 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis note points out a crucial flaw in Evans's recent article [1] on decision sensitivity analysis which was published in this journal. This flaw leads to errors in the majority of his formulae and examples. Correct distance formulae in “probability space,” easily computed from the problem data, are provided. After a critical discussion of some of the concepts Evans employed, we bring to the reader's attention a body of prior work in this area that apparently was overlooked.
THE ESCALATION OF COMMITMENT IN SEQUENTIAL DECISION MAKING: SITUATIONAL AND PERSONAL MODERATORS AND LIMITING CONDITIONS*
Authors: Bateman Thomas S. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTTwo laboratory studies manipulated variables in order to observe their effect on the escalation of individuals' commitment to earlier investment decisions. The experimental results indicated that escalation of commitment to a failing course of action is not a general phenomenon. Information pertinent to the future prospects of reinvestment and to decision alternatives provided main effects. Neither study showed a main effect for initial success vs. failure. Decision‐maker gender consistently influenced decisions in both studies through interactions with success/failure feedback and through the communicated attributions of “powerful others” regarding the causes of previous decision outcomes. Implications for theory and research are discussed.
AN ALTERNATING LEAST‐SQUARES PROCEDURE FOR ESTIMATING MISSING PREFERENCE DATA IN PRODUCT‐CONCEPT TESTING*
Authors: DeSarbo S. , Green Paul E. , Carroll J. Douglas 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTProduct‐concept testing is a popular activity in marketing research. Often the number of new product/service concepts under study far exceeds the time available for any single respondent. Respondents therefore may receive only a subset of the concepts comprising the total design. Researchers are interested in making plausible imputations for the missing evaluations of any given respondent.This paper proposes a model and an iterative estimation procedure to impute missing entries for each evaluator. The model and the procedure incorporate (1) the internal structure of the response matrix and (2) an ancillary matrix of (nonmissing) respondent background data; they also (3) allow for individual differences in respondents' uses of the numerical rating scale. The model is applied to both real and synthetic data. Suggestions also are given on how the data imputations may be used in market segmentation and product‐line decisions.
THE STRUCTURE OF EXECUTIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS
Authors: Jones Jack William , McLeod Raymond 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on a study which attempted to identify the structure of executive information systems and evaluate their relationship to decision making. The study centered on answering the question: “Where and how do senior executives get their decision‐making information?” The data, provided by five senior executives, were gathered by a variety of means which included personal interviews, questionnaires, and logs of the executives' incoming‐information transactions for a two‐week period. Our findings support beliefs that senior executives receive much information from the environment, that informal systems play a role equal to that of formal systems, and that computers do not provide much information directly to an executive. The study also found that internal information is important and that preferred sources and media vary with different decision roles. The authors suggest that the scope of MIS and DSS be broadened to match those information networks managers actually rely on in daily practice.