bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
HIGH‐LEVEL DECISIONS: A LESSON FROM THE IRAN HOSTAGE RESCUE OPERATION
Authors: Saaty Thomas L. , Vargas Luis G. , Barzilay Amos 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTWe use the analytic hierarchy process to analyze the role of subjective factors in decision making as illustrated in the Iran rescue operation. Essentially, we show that a decision maker and that decision maker's advisors may differ in their estimates on whether an action should or should not be taken depending on what intangible factors the leader holds as personally important, factors that the others would not necessarily include in their thinking‐a serious point for which we provide a particularly effective methodology.
EFFECTS OF INQUIRY METHODS AND AMBIGUITY TOLERANCE ON PREDICTION PERFORMANCE*
Authors: Schwenk Charles R. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis study examined the comparative effectiveness of four inquiry methods on a financial prediction task. Inquiry methods included the expert (E), devil's advocate (DA), and dialectical inquiry (DI) techniques as well as a combined devil's advocate‐dialectical inquiry (DADI) technique. Also, the moderating effects of ambiguity tolerance were considered. Results indicated that when the state of the world was opposite to the assumptions underlying a plan, the DA, DI, and DADI approaches were all superior to the E approach. Further, for high ambiguity‐tolerance subjects, the DA and DADI approaches led to significantly better prediction performance than the E approach, and the superiority of the DADI approach over the DI approach was marginally significant. Results suggest that decision makers' levels of ambiguity tolerance should be considered before recommending their use of either the DA or DADI approach as an ill‐structured decision‐making aid.
APPLICATION OF A PRODUCTIVITY MODEL FOR COMPUTER SYSTEMS*
Authors: Kriebel Charles A. , Raviv Artur 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe performance evaluation of computer systems as they impact on final user requirements for services is a complex task. A management‐oriented approach to the issue based on conventional economic theory was described in a previous report as an outgrowth of a joint university‐industry research project. In this sequel we report our experience in estimating, testing, and applying this conceptual model.
AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TAX COURT'S DETERMINATION OF REASONABLE COMPENSATION
Authors: Porcano Thomas M. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe determination of reasonable compensation is one of the most frequently contested issues between the taxpayer and the IRS. The major purpose of this study is to develop a multiple regression model to predict accurately the amount of compensation allowed by the Tax Court as a percent of the amount in dispute between the taxpayer and the IRS. In general, the taxpayer receives favorable treatment in Tax Court when contesting unreasonable compensation payments. The multiple regression model, developed using a stepwise procedure, is a good predictor of the compensation allowed by the court. The overall results have important implications for developing taxpayers' appeal strategies.
A VARIANCE‐REDUCTION STRATEGY FOR RSM SIMULATION STUDIES
Authors: Cooley Belva J. , Houck Ernest C. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe application of optimization techniques in digital simulation experiments is frequently complicated by the presence of large experimental error variances. Two of the more widely accepted design strategies for the resolution of this problem include the assignment of common pseudorandom number streams and the assignment of antithetic pseudorandom number streams to the experimental points. When considered separately, however, each of these variance‐reduction procedures has rather restrictive limitations. This paper examines the simultaneous use of these two techniques as a variance‐reduction strategy in response surface methodology (RSM) analysis of simulation models. A simulation of an inventory system is used to illustrate the application and benefits of this assignment procedure, as well as the basic components of an RSM analysis.
ON THE COST OF NEW ISSUES OF COMMON STOCK: AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTANT GROWTH MODEL
Authors: Carlson Phillip G. , Dietz Arthur T. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTExpansion decisions by corporate managements are importantly influenced by their perceptions of the firm's cost of capital and especially the cost of common equity. Their decision making is then influenced by the common perception that new issues of common stock are more costly than retained earnings because of the flotation costs inherent in new issues. Thus a rate of expansion that requires new issues is downgraded in decision making. In this paper the authors show that in actuality new issues of common equity may be less costly than retained earnings. Thus different decision‐making implications are clearly involved.
Concepts, Theory, and Techniques: FACTORS AFFECTING THE PERCEIVED UTILIZATION OF COMPUTER‐BASED DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN THE OIL INDUSTRY
Authors: Fuerst William L. , Cheney Paul H. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis study investigates factors that may affect the use of decision support systems. The independent variables investigated included: characteristics of the decision makers such as age, educational level, experience, and cognitive style; characteristics of the decision support system such as response time, accuracy, timeliness, relevancy of output, format, and the distance traveled to interact with the system; and characteristics of the implementation process such as user involvement, user training, and top management support. The study included 8 systems and 64 subjects from the oil industry. The results indicated that the most important variables affecting decision support system usage were accuracy of output, user training, relevancy of output, and the decision maker's experience.Subject Areas: Decision Support Systems, Information Management, and Organizational Behavior.
HEURISTIC LOT‐SIZING APPROACHES FOR DEALING WITH MRP SYSTEM NERVOUSNESS
Authors: Kropp Dean H. , Carlson Robert C. , Jucker James V. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTWe develop and test ways for modifying the Silver‐Meal and part‐period‐balancing lot‐sizing procedures to include the costs of schedule changes in response to changes in demand estimates. These modifications tend to reduce MRP system nervousness. We compare the performance of these approaches with the modified Wagner‐Whitin algorithm, which we have shown is optimal for static conditions. We find that the modified SilverMeal approach is only slightly more costly than the modified Wagner‐Whitin technique and that the modified part‐period‐balancing approach performs both poorly and erratically.
RISK‐RETURN ANALYSIS WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO LARGE LOSSES AND SATISFACTORY GAINS
Authors: Yilmaz Mustafa R. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a general risk‐return model that enhances the prescriptive and descriptive appeal of two‐attribute risky choice models. Conceptually, this model is fully compatible with Von Neumann‐Morgenstern expected‐utility theory. This compatibility is largely retained with simple forms of risk and return measures that are easy to estimate from preference data. A dominance version of the model yields subsets of efficient alternatives associated with stochastic dominance relationships.
A PROCUREMENT STAFFING MODEL: ESTIMATING THE SERVICE AND COST IMPACTS OF ALTERING OPERATIONS*
Authors: Morey Richard C. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTEvaluating the service and cost impacts of altering procurement configurations is a common problem whenever an organization desires to be responsive to the changing needs of the populations being served. Changes relate to the volume of the work load, the degree of responsiveness required, or the technology and processes used. In real‐world situations, personnel turnovers, uneven work loads, leaves, training requirements, and use of overtime all contribute to the complexity of the task. When a range of experience over different‐sized operations is available, econometric approaches are applicable to estimate economies of scaie and technical substitution possibilities. Otherwise, queuing and job‐shop modeling, combined with simulation approaches, can be helpful. This paper presents a case study of the analysis of a proposed reorganization for a large procurement activity in the U.S. Navy. The actual job‐shop‐scheduling and task‐sequencing logic used in practice was modeled. Cost comparisons of four procurement configurations were generated under the constraints that prespecified levels of service be satisfied.
STRUCTURE, ENVIRONMENT, AND ORGANIZATIONAL GOVERNANCE IN MANUFACTURING*
Authors: Gaertner Gregory H. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe paper compares theories of organizational governance that explain delegation in decision making in terms of administrative rationality on the parts of top corporate officials with theories that emphasize lower‐level actors mobilizing resources to gain control over organizational outcomes. These two alternative theories are developed and extended to apply to the relationship between manufacturing plants and parent companies. A general model is introduced to compare these theories which includes characteristics of parent companies and site environments, site resources, and delegation. The model is then tested on a sample of manufacturing plants.
PLANNING PROCESS ARCHETYPES AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS
Authors: Nutt Paul C. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTCase studies of planning were profiled to identify how practitioners carry out a planning process. Five archetype processes emerged from the analyses which were named evaluative, historical model, off‐the‐shelf, search, and nova. These five processes were compared in terms of their adoption rate and perceived quality. The evaluative process was found to be the most successful, followed by the historical model and off‐the‐shelf processes. Nova and search processes had the least success. Contextual factors, such as time pressure and resources available, were included in the analyses to identify conditions of use for each process type. In situations where time pressure was high or the planning concerned services, the off‐the‐shelf model produced the best results; in situations where time pressure was low or the planning concerned internal operations, the historical model produced the best results. Most of the planning activity in organizations appears to be informal and heuristic, ignoring the methods described in the planning literature.
CORPORATE DISTINCTIVE COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE: EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED ENVIRONMENTAL UNCERTAINTY (PEU), SIZE, AND TECHNOLOGY
Authors: Hitt Michael A. , Ireland R. Duane 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe relationships of specific distinctive competencies to performance were examined for firm size, type of production system, and level of perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU). The size and dominant production system used by a firm were found to have main moderating effects on those relationships although PEU by itself did not. However, PEU did interact with size and production system to moderate those relationships.
THE INVESTIGATION OF COST VARIANCES: A FUZZY SET THEORY APPROACH*
Authors: Zebda Awni 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTIn a standard costing system, deviations (variances) of actual cost from standard cost should be investigated in order to help management identify the causes of the variances and who is responsible for them before corrective actions are taken. In reality, however, actual cost rarely equals standard cost and so many variances occur that it is impractical and uneconomical to investigate all of them. These two conflicting factors—the necessity of investigating cost variances and the impracticality of investigating all the variances—present management with the problem of deciding which variances to investigate. In this paper a model, based on fuzzy set theory, for the cost‐variance investigation is proposed and applied to an actual investigation problem faced by a manufacturing company.
THE PERFORMANCE OF A SIMPLE INCREMENTAL LOT‐SIZING RULE IN A MULTILEVEL INVENTORY ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Veral Emre A. , LaForge R. Lawrence 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTA simple incremental cost approach to lot sizing was tested in a multilevel inventory environment. The incremental approach has not previously been tested in a large‐scale study involving multiple product‐structure levels. Using the Wagner‐Whitin (WW) algorithm as a benchmark, the simple incremental rule (IPPA) was compared to three heuristic procedures (LFL, EOQ, and POQ) frequently used in material requirements planning (MRP) lot‐sizing research. The incremental rule consistently generated lower total order/setup and carrying costs than the three heuristics across the 3,200 multilevel test situations examined. In many of the test situations, the incremental rule also outperformed the WW benchmark.
Notes and Communications A NON‐DUAL APPROACH TO SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS—THE RIGHT‐HAND‐SIDE CASE
Authors: Erenguc S. Selcuk , Fogler H. Russell , Majthay Antal 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTLinear programming and sensitivity analysis in linear programming have long been integral parts of business school curricula, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Most business school students are required to take an introductory course in management science emphasizing linear programming and sensitivity analysis. This note is educational and presents a non‐dual approach to restoring the optimal solution to a linear program when changes in the right‐hand‐side vector render the current solution infeasible and thus nonoptimal.
A STOCHASTIC DOMINANCE ALGORITHM USING PIECEWISE LINEAR APPROXIMATIONS
Authors: Ritchken Peter H. , Agarwal Yogesh , Gupta Alok 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTCurrent stochastic dominance algorithms use step functions to approximate the cumulative distributions of the alternatives, even when the underlying random variables are known to be continuous. Since stochastic dominance tests require repeated integration of the cumulative distribution functions, a compounding of errors may result from this type of approximation. This article introduces a new stochastic dominance algorithm that approximates the cumulative distribution function by piecewise linear approximations. Comparisons between the new and old algorithms are performed for normally distributed alternatives. In about 95 percent of all cases, the two algorithms produce the same result.
THE COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION AS A FACTOR IN MRP RESEARCH
Authors: Bobko Peter B. , Whybark D. Clay 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the use of the coefficient of variation (CV) as a measure of requirements lumpiness (the amount of variation in requirements from period to period) in material requirements planning (MRP) research. CV is used as a factor in MRP research even though it is limited as a measure. Any sequence of requirements will have a unique CV, but any CV can represent a variety of requirements sequences. This limitation raises questions concerning the robustness of CV as a measure. In this paper, two other aspects of the requirements sequence for a given CV are investigated: the procedure used to generate the requirements and the manner in which the requirements are grouped. A simulation comparison of selected lot‐sizing techniques is used to conduct the investigation. With respect to these two (new) aspects of the requirements sequence, CV appears to be a robust measure.
SOME DIFFICULTIES AND IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING LINEAR PROGRAMMING FORMULATIONS TO THE DISCRIMINANT PROBLEM
Authors: Markowski Edward P. , Markowski Carol A. 
Published: June 2007

AbstractIn this paper, we discuss some disturbing features of two linear programming (LP) approaches to the discriminant problem. Specifically, we show that both approaches are sensitive to the choice of origin for the data although, intuitively, placement of origin should have no effect on the method of assigning cases to groups. In addition, we show that these LP approaches may lead to discriminant functions which assign all cases to the same group. We show that the usual statistical approach to this problem does not share these difficulties, and we make recommendations for implementing these LP approaches which help to alleviate the difficulties.
EVALUATING ALTERNATIVE LINEAR PROGRAMMING MODELS TO SOLVE THE TWO‐GROUP DISCRIMINANT PROBLEM
Authors: Freed Ned , Glover Fred 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTThe two‐group discriminant problem has applications in many areas, for example, differentiating between good credit risks and poor ones, between promising new firms and those likely to fail, or between patients with strong prospects for recovery and those highly at risk. To expand our tools for dealing with such problems, we propose a class of nonpara‐metric discriminant procedures based on linear programming (LP). Although these procedures have attracted considerable attention recently, only a limited number of computational studies have examined the relative merits of alternative formulations. In this paper we provide a detailed study of three contrasting formulations for the two‐group problem. The experimental design provides a variety of test conditions involving both normal and nonnormal populations. Our results establish the LP model which seeks to minimize the sum of deviations beyond the two‐group boundary as a promising alternative to more conventional linear discriminant techniques.
THE TIMING OF LABOR TRANSFERS IN DUAL RESOURCE‐CONSTRAINED SYSTEMS: “PUSH” VS. “PULL” RULES*
Authors: Treleven Mark 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTAltough the dual resource‐constrained (DRC) system has been studied, the decision rule used to determine when workers are eligible for transfer largely has been ignored. Some earlier studies examined the impact of this rule [5] [12] [15] but did not include labor‐transfer times in their models. Gunther [6] incorporated labour‐transfer times into his model, but the model involved only one worker and two machines. No previous study has examined decision rules that initiate labor transfers based on labor needs (“pull” rules). Labor transfers always have been initiated based on lack of need (“push” rules).This study examines three “pull” variations of the “When” labor‐assignment decision rule. It compares their performances to the performances of two “push” rules and a comparable machine‐limited system. A nonparametric statistical test, Jonckheere's S statistic, is used to test for significance of the rankings of the rules: a robust parametric multiple‐comparison statistical test, Tukey's B statistic, is used to test the differences.One “pull” and one “push” decision rule provide similar performances and top the rankings consistently. Decision rules for determining when labor should be transferred from one work area to another are valuable aids for managers. This especially is true for the ever‐increasing number of managers operating in organizations that recognize the benefits of a cross‐trained work force. Recently there has been much interest in cross‐training workers, perhaps because one of the mechanisms used in just‐in‐time systems to handle unbalanced work loads is to have cross‐trained workers who can be shifted as demand dictates [8]. If management is to take full advantage of a cross‐trained work force, it need to know when to transfer workers.
TESTING THE ROBUSTNESS OF MULTIATTRIBUTE UTILITY THEORY IN AN APPLIED SETTING*
Authors: Farmer Timothy A. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTMultiattribute utility theory (MAUT) was employed to model the professional judgments of external auditors. Fully developed MAUT models elicited from each subject according to keeney and Raiffa's [6] procedures were used to predict the internal control systems evaluations made by auditor‐subjects. Correlation analyses were used to compare the predictive ability of the “correct” MAUT models to the accuracy of models developed under simplifications of the MAUT procedures. One simplified model resulted from relaxing the requirements for attribute independence that determine the functional forms. A second modified MAUT function was formed using unitary weightings on conditional utility functions instead of elicited scaling constants. Tests showed essentially no significant differences in predictive accuracy among the models in the contact of this study.
INFLUENCE OF MISSING ATTRIBUTES ON SELECTING A BEST MULTIATTRIBUTED ALTERNATIVE
Authors: Barron F. Hutton 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTAlternatives involving many factors arc difficult to evaluate because of multiple underlying competing objectives. If evaluation is based on an incomplete set of factors, and if the purpose of the evaluation is to select a single overall best alternative, inferior alternatives may be selected with surprising frequency and/or severe negative impact. At the same time, sensitivity analysis of evaluation scores based on statistical criteria can easily mask the impact and the frequency of selection of inferior alternatives. In this paper, criteria appropriate to reflect the decision impact are developed and both the frequency and impact of the selection of inferior alternatives are demonstrated empirically. Previous studies based on statistical criteria [1] [9] indicated minimal impact on overall evaluation and selection. This paper demonstrates that high statistical criterion values coexist with frequent and/or serious errors of selection.
A COMPARISON OF SEQUENCING RULES FOR A TWO‐STATE HYBRID FLOW SHOP
Authors: Narasimhan Seetharama L. , Mangiameli Paul M. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTA common manufacturing environment in many industries (such as the glass, steel, paper, costume jewelry, and textile industries) is a hybrid flow shop. This system has continuous‐process machinery in the fist state of manufacturing and repetitive‐batch equipment in the second. Little research has investigated this type system. Scheduling managers of hybrid flow shops tend either to use existing job‐shop rules or to devise their own rules. These approaches often are less than adequate for efficient scheduling. In this paper we extend the rule presented by Narasimhan and Panwalker [4] to include a general class of hybrid flow shops. This extenstion, called the generalized cumulative minimum‐deviation (GCMD) rule, is compared under various operation conditions to three other sequencing rules: shortest processing time, longest processing time, and minimum deviation. The operating conditions are determined by the number of machines at both stages. The results of 7200 simulation runs demonstrate that the GCMD rule is better than the other rules in minimizing each of five chosen criteria. Thus, the GCMD rule can help managers to schedule hybrid flow shops efficiently to achieve various corporate objectives.