Design of a Global Decision Support System for a manufacturing SME: Towards participating in Collaborative Manufacturing

This paper discusses the conceptual design of a Global Decision Support System for a manufacturing Small or Medium Enterprise (SM/E), which actively participates in Collaborative Manufacturing. In order to implement the proposed concept, a Web Services based system architecture is proposed to offer maximum interoperability between all the distributed participants of a Collaborative Manufacturing Network (CMN) and their management information systems. Furthermore, this conceptual design utilises a Collaborative decision-support model that effectively interacts with the decision-makers and the management information systems/tools exist in the network, and provides appropriate support to all necessary decision-making steps towards the attainment of the network's strategic goals, while making full benefits of the network resources.     

Design and application of task administration protocols for collaborative production and service systems

This research investigates the design of Task Administration Protocols (TAPs) for effective task allocation and administration in collaborative production/service systems. Customer-focused and concurrent engineering service systems process tasks more effectively as a result of the power of collaboration among multiple participants. In such environments, however, complex situations might arise that require decisions that cannot be handled by simple Coordination Protocols (CPs). To design an effective control mechanism to manage complex situations, this research identifies basic problems in collaborative task administration and proposes the design framework of protocols to solve the problems. In the framework, TAPs consist of three component-protocols: (1) Task Requirement Analysis Protocol, (2) Shared Resource Allocation Protocol, and (3) Synchronization and Time-Out Protocol. Each component protocol is activated to address priority-based allocation, resource-aware allocation, and task re-allocation at a different task administration context, ranging from task initialization, task allocation, to task monitoring, respectively. To analyze feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed design, TAPs are applied to two collaborative production/service systems. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance achieved by different TAPs and non-TAP CPs under various load conditions. The results show that there is a significant performance improvement by TAPs over CPs in most cases, e.g., 84% vs. 64% in terms of task completion ratio. The advantage of TAPs can be explained by their design with relatively higher level of collaborative intelligence, addressing more complex control logic than non-TAP CPs.     

Collaborative buyer-supplier relationships and downstream information in marketing channels

Research on buyer-supplier relationships has emphasized the importance of collaboration and business networks. We aim to study the effects of downstream information on the collaborative buyer-supplier relationship. Downstream information refers to the information a firm obtains from marketing channels, be they wholesalers, distributors or retailers. The approach allows firms to concentrate their efforts on the most relevant sources of information and not on the whole network. Survey data was gathered from the Dutch potted plant and flower industry to test this hypothesis. Our findings demonstrate that collaborative relationships are contingent on downstream information from both the buying perspective (wholesalers) and from the supplying perspective (producers).     

Organizational values and procedures as antecedents for goal interdependence and collaborative effectiveness

Organizational values of people and respect and interdependent structures of team procedures and task interdependence may help departments believe their goals are cooperative and thereby coordinate effectively. CEOs in China completed measures of their organization’s values and interdependent structures and their Vice-Presidents completed measures of the department’s goal interdependence (cooperative, competitive, and independent) and collaborative effectiveness. Structural equation analysis suggested that values and interdependent structures promote cooperative, but not competitive or independent, goals that in turn results in collaborative effectiveness. These results, coupled with previous research, were interpreted as suggesting that people and respect values, team procedures, task interdependence, and cooperative goals are complementary foundations for synergy in China and perhaps other countries as well.

网络信息技术下基于知识的决策分工、决策绩效和决策权力的配置

网络信息技术剥离了决策中显性知识的处理任务,显性化了部分“地域”性知识和隐性知识,降低了决策的度量成本和决策外部性的内部化成本,提高了企业的决策绩效,从而使基于知识的决策分工及在此基础上的决策权力配置成为可能。     

Collaborative approaches to public sector innovation: A scoping study

In the last 15 years, European countries have invested considerable resources to provide e-government services. Despite of its increasing availability, its level of adoption has not been satisfying. On the other hand, over the last years, coinciding with the web 2.0 trend, the e-government services co-produced by citizens start to appear, often without the support, acknowledgement and even awareness of the government. This trend stems from a well-established tradition of offline co- production of public services, i.e. services provided by the voluntary sector, but brought to an unprecedented scale thanks to the advent of web 2.0. Still, the concept remains not well-defined and its impact is not yet well studied. The paper explores on a limited sets of cases what does it mean to collaboratively deliver online public services; what are the success factors based on the cases under study and what are the incentives for service providers (other than public administration), citizens as users and public administration. The authors propose an ostensive definition of the collaborative delivery of public services: collaborative public services are created and run by government, civil society or by private sector building on the re-use of government data or citizens data. Those services are focused on public goods delivery (e.g. health, education, public transport) and are meant to change the traditional government services by engaging in an open dialogue with public administration about the best way to deliver those services. The analysis of six case studies of innovative collaborative online public services suggests that the online collaborative public service delivery increases its quality with the users׳ growth contrary to the traditional offline service delivery. The study results indicate that the current developers interest lies in delivering complementary services to the government run services rather than substitutive services. The authors propose also the initial list of success factors, enabling conditions, and benefits for all main stakeholders (users, innovators and public administration).     

On-line critiques in collaborative design studio

In this study, the Design Collaboration Model (DCM) was developed to provide a medium for the on-line collaboration of the design courses. The model was based on the situated and reflective practice characteristics of the design process. The segmentation method was used to analyse the design process observed both in the design diaries and the redline files that were composed of the problem domain and the design strategies. In the problem domain, it was observed that high emphasis was given to the design abstractions in the level of details of a space or sub-space. Also, the critics were more interested in the solution space than the problem space. As a design strategy, rejecting a solution was more practiced than proposing alternative solutions. Since the performance score of the students was highly correlated to the number of segments in critiques, it is concluded that quality rather than quantity of critiques determine the success level of proposed design solutions.

石油工程项目投资决策特征

主要研究了石油工程项目在投资决策起因、决策活动、决策目标、决策过程、决策风险、决策冲突、决策组织等方面所具有的特征,并论述了这些决策特征对石油工程项目投资活动所产生的影响。     

Strategic decision speed and firm performance

This 4‐year study examines the effect of strategic decision speed upon subsequent firm performance and identifies environmental and organizational characteristics that relate to decision speed. We draw upon strategic decision‐making theory and organization theory to propose that strategic decision speed mediates the relation between environmental and organizational characteristics and performance. Measures of business environment, organization structure, strategic decision speed, and firm performance (growth and profitability) were collected from 318 CEOs from 1996 to 2000. Structural equation modeling confirmed that fast strategic decision‐making predicts subsequent firm growth and profit and mediates the relation of dynamism, munificence, centralization, and formalization with firm performance. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of collaborative communication on the development of market-relating capabilities and relational performance metrics in industrial markets

Research in marketing suggests that collaborative communication is important for firms to sustain competitive advantage, especially in industrial markets. This study integrates relational and resource-based views to articulate how collaborative communication influences different relational performance metrics. Based on a survey of 167 marketing executives in Taiwan's electronics industry, empirical findings indicate that market-relating capabilities (i.e., market-linking and marketing capabilities) completely mediate the collaborative communication–financial performance relationship, while market-relating capabilities partially mediate the collaborative communication–customer-focused performance relationship. In addition, collaborative communication directly influences customer cooperation performance instead of indirectly affecting it through the development of market-relating capabilities. The results of this study provide new insights into the role of collaborative communication as well as important theoretical and managerial implications.     

A CRM performance measurement framework: Its development process and application

We suggest a performance measurement framework called a customer relationship management (CRM) scorecard to diagnose and assess a firm's CRM practice. The CRM scorecard was developed through a rigorous and stepwise development process collaborated with a number of firms in a variety of industries. During the development process, we conducted an extensive literature review to build a theoretical causal map, in-depth interviews with practitioners to extract a hierarchical map from industrial perspectives, feasibility tests to check whether or not Key Performance Indicators (KPI) could be measured, and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis to prioritize the evaluation factors on the CRM scorecard. The CRM scorecard contains antecedent/subsequent and objective/perceptual evaluation factors in four different perspectives to comprehensively measure corporate CRM capability and readiness. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed CRM scorecard, we apply the framework to a retail bank in Korea well-known for its exemplary CRM strategy.     

零售商开辟电子渠道的双渠道供应链定价决策

研究两层双渠道供应链中，在制造商实施直销渠道的基础上，零售商开辟电子渠道对供应链的影响。建立了双渠道供应链的定价决策模型，针对零售商未开辟电子渠道和开辟电子渠道两种情形，分别求解集中决策、Stackelberg博弈分散式决策模式下的零售商和制造商各自的最优定价及利润，并利用数值算例，进行对比分析。研究发现零售商开辟电子渠道的影响是多重的，一方面零售商的市场被拓展，竞争力增强，利润显著提高，有利于其与制造商进行抗衡。另一方面，制造商的利润有所下降，且整个供应链系统的渠道冲突加剧。因此，面对制造商的直销渠道，零售商可以选择开辟电子渠道来增强其话语权，与制造商进行谈判，实现互利双赢。     

From relationships to partnerships—new forms of cooperation between buyer and seller

An increased focus on operational performance and the reliance on fewer suppliers by industrial customers call for a higher quality of buyer-seller relationships.This article elaborates on economic explanations for value generated partnerships and describes the distinctive qualities of partnerships as something more than ordinary customer relationships. Particular attention is paid to the managerial implications and pitfalls awaiting companies when pursuing a partnership approach and a definition of vertical partnerships is provided.     

Influences on strategic decision effectiveness: Development and test of an integrative model

This paper draws upon three broad perspectives on the strategic decision‐making process in order to develop a more completely specified model of strategic decision effectiveness in a different context, namely Egypt. The key variables in this model consist of three strategic decision‐making process dimensions (rationality, intuition, and political behavior); seven moderating variables concerning decision‐specific, environmental, and organizational factors; and strategic decision effectiveness as an outcome variable. A two‐stage study was conducted in which the first stage provided exploratory insights and the second stage investigated hypotheses on the impact of strategic decision‐making process dimensions on strategic decision effectiveness and the moderating role of broader contextual variables. The second‐stage study produced three major findings: (1) both rational and political processes appear to have more influence on strategic decision effectiveness than does intuition; (2) strategic decision effectiveness is both process‐ and context‐specific; and (3) certain results support the ‘culture‐free’ argument, while others support the ‘culture‐specific’ argument. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heavy lies the crown? How job anxiety affects top executive decision making in gain and loss contexts

Research summary: Despite abundant anecdotal evidence that many top executives experience anxiety in their jobs, the upper echelons literature has remained largely silent on the organizational implications of executive job anxiety. In this study, we theorize that job anxiety will cause executives to (1) create a social buffer against threats by surrounding themselves with supportive decision‐making teams, and (2) pursue lower‐risk firm strategies. We further argue that these effects will vary depending upon whether strategic decisions occur in gain versus loss contexts. We test our ideas using a novel multisource, multimethod approach that includes data from 84 top executives of large organizations, their decision‐making teams, their friends and families, and archival sources. Results from an analysis of 154 major strategic decisions provide general support for our theory. Managerial summary: Although many top executives experience anxiety in their jobs, some struggle more with anxiety than others. Our paper is the first to focus on how job anxiety affects executives' decisions. We analyze 154 major strategic decisions made by 84 top executives of large organizations in a range of industries, collecting data from personal interviews with executives and surveys of their decision‐making teams, spouses, and friends. We find that anxious executives take fewer strategic risks, especially when things are going well. We further argue that anxious executives focus more on “buffering” themselves from threats, and find that they surround themselves with close supporters when times are tough. Our results demonstrate a pattern through which anxiety causes top executives to focus more heavily on avoiding potential threats. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

风险贴现率法在工程项目风险决策分析中的运用

风险贴现率法是风险决策分析中常用的方法。章根据工程项目的特点，论述了在工程项目决策中引入风险贴现率法的可能性，以及针对实际情况调整风险贴现率的几种方法，同时也指出了风险贴现率法的局限性。     

一种权重未知的多目标决策方法

本文讨论了多目标决策问题,给出了合理的规格化公式,并提出了基于方差最小的加权方法.应用表明该方法可行有效.     

Strategic decision models: Integrating different perspectives

Different perspectives of strategic decision-making and outcomes have been advanced in the literature. Among those are the rational normative, external control, and strategic choice models. The current research examined hypothesized effects of factors associated with these three perspectives on strategic acquisition decisions. Strong support was found for the rational/analytical normative choice perspective with objective criteria explaining the greatest amount of total explained variance in evaluation of target firms. However, industry and executive characteristics also produced main effects on target firm evaluations. Furthermore, the strategic decision models were found to vary by industry and executive characteristics of age, educational degree type, amount and type of work experience, and level (CEO and below). The results suggest that strategic decision models are quite complex with significant implications for future research and for strategic decision-making.     

Best-matching protocols for assembly in e-work networks

Assembly networks pose many challenges to the comprising businesses due to their ever-growing distributed nature. This article explores the benefits of incorporating best-matching protocols (BMP) into the principles of design for assembly (DFA) to make better use of already existing information on equipment, parts and suppliers. Best-matching protocols for cooperation requirement planning (BMP-CRP), for part matching (BMP-part) and supplier selection were developed. A case study for the matching of parts and suppliers is provided. The results of the case study corroborate the benefits in quality and costs that the best-matching protocols can yield for businesses in an assembly e-work network.     

Communication protocols for order management in collaborative manufacturing

Collaborative manufacturing requires efficient and cost effective communications among the partners. To provide efficient and reliable communications, this research modularizes the design of communication protocols for order management in collaborative manufacturing. Ten protocol modules have been defined and designed in this research.With the 10 protocol modules, companies can easily construct the protocols to regulate the interactions between partner companies. This research designs five protocols associated with order management in collaborative manufacturing. The protocols are also implemented in a distributed computing environment. The results indicate that the modularized protocols ensure the reliability and efficiency of communications, and reduce the complexity in protocol design.