An Illustrative Application of Multi-Unit Franchise Expansion in a Local Retail Market

Abstract

Retail expansion in a local market offers many challenges, and given the sensitivity of survival to location mistakes, it is imperative to develop site models that incorporate realistic impediments to that expansion. Small independent businesses or local area franchisees facing limits on all forms of capital rarely can open additional units without delays. In this paper, we test the benefit of using Kaufmann, Donthu and Brooks' (2000) multi-unit site selection model that incorporates the reality of delays in the opening of new stores as well as the recognition that local retail chains can face competition from many hard to identify sources. We use data from the actual introduction of a small set of stores in a major United States metropolitan market to estimate the potential for improvement over a pure sequential expansion strategy. When compared to the sequential strategy actually used by the retailer, we estimate that performance could have been improved by 15.5% if a model that anticipated the delays in opening the stores and competition from secondary sources would have been used.     

An Integrated System to Acquire Knowledge and Support Decisions in Complex Innovation Design Processes

A system that integrates tools from different disciplines, ranging from cognitive and social psychology to multicriteria analysis and mathematical programming, is introduced to cope with the complexities and uncertainties that generate criticality in the organization innovation processes. An intelligent combined use of tools can facilitate the integration of unstructured or semistructured information resources and support individuals or groups of stakeholders in a complex environment, in order to structure a problem situation, to agree on a “problem focus” and to make commitments on a set of possible actions. The purpose of this article is to examine the potentiality of this system, above all in terms of knowledge acquisition, fusion, and use in various organizational contexts, and to describe an application in relation to an industrial project, in order to support the conceptual phase of the design process.     

Word-of-mouth Communication in Low-risk Product Decisions

Word-of-mouth communication is an elusive but powerful market force. While past studies of word of mouth have concentrated on high-risk products, this study demonstrates the power of word of mouth in influencing low-risk purchase decisions. The results indicate that word of mouth does not operate in isolation but in conjunction with media information sources. They also show that word-of-mouth behaviour is not random but is reinforced by needs of both informers and informees.     

An Integrated Group Decision Making Support Model for Corporate Financing Decisions

The essential goal of corporate finance is to maximize corporate value while reducing a firm’s financial risks. Corporate financing decision is a kind of multi-criteria based group decision making that embodies major approaches to handle qualitative criteria and quantitative limitations. However, in literature related to financing decision making, very little research uses decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and analytic network process (ANP) methods to consider the impact and dependency of its factors, or uses Goal programming (GP) to find the satisfactory financing decision under the related financial constraints. This study proposes an integrated group decision making support (GDMS) model to assist corporate financing group decision makers (DMs) in obtaining a satisfactory group solution. ANP, DEMATEL and GP are combined in this GDMS model. By using this model, the group DMs can systemically structure a multi-criteria network framework and derive priority weights of those criteria, and then deal with the quantitative financial constraints for a satisfactory group solution. An illustrative case is demonstrated for the effectiveness and practicability of this GDMS model.     

An Application of Focus Theory to Project Management Processes

This article presents the findings of an exploratory study of the degree to which Focus Theory, a general theory about group productivity, can be used to improve the productivity of project management activities. Guided by the theory and the principles of collaboration engineering, we developed a collaborative template for project progress status reporting. We evaluated the template in both face-to-face and distributed group interactions. The study indicated that a collaborative template helped structure status reporting activity and provided a permanent record of project status for future reference. As a result, it was efficient and effective for team leaders to prepare topics for project status meetings by using the template. The meetings became focused on topics outlined on the template and meeting participants commented that the meeting record helped them keep track of what had been either accomplished or decided. The major limitation observed for use of the template was that, when used in distributed and synchronous interactions, it needed to be augmented by voice communication because communication in text-only format, as provided by the template, was too time-consuming. We discuss implications of the research outcomes with respect to the usefulness and limitations of Focus Theory.     

Project Finance and Concession Pricing Models: An Application to Brazilian Ports

Since the Lei dos Portos (“Ports Law”) of 1993, Brazilian ports have operated under the landlord regime, which places the management of ports in the hands of a national authority and provides for the rendering of private services inside the facilities. The model has enabled increases in capacity as well as gains in efficiency, both of which are currently limited due to infrastructure constraints. Expanding infrastructure by building additional ports was an option for the sector to meet the needs of a growing economy. In this context, this article discusses the adoption of public–private partnerships and project finance structure to propose a formula to compute the value of a new port.     

Preference Intensities and Majority Decisions Based on Difference of Support Between Alternatives

Simple majority is one of the most used decision rules in practice. However, under this decision rule, an alternative can defeat another one with very poor support. For this reason, other decision rules have been considered in the literature, such as qualified and special majorities as well as other majorities based on difference of votes. In this paper we generalize the latter mentioned voting systems by considering individual intensities of preference, and we provide some axiomatic characterizations.     

Information Asymmetry in Business-to-Business Negotiations: A Game Theoretical Approach to Support Purchasing Decisions with Suppliers

Group Decision and Negotiation - The digital transformation confronts purchasing and supply management (PSM) with numerous new challenges, such as digital procurement objects and the information...     

Communication and Promotion Decisions in Retailing: A Review and Directions for Future Research

Communication and promotion decisions are a fundamental part of retailer customer experience management strategy. In this review paper, we address two key questions from a retailer's perspective: (1) what have we learned from prior research about promotion, advertising, and other forms of communication and (2) what major issues should future research in this area address. In addressing these questions, we propose and follow a framework that captures the interrelationships among manufacturer and retailer communication and promotion decisions and retailer performance. We examine these questions under four major topics: determination and allocation of promotion budget, trade promotions, consumer promotions and communication and promotion through the new media. Our review offers several useful insights and identifies many fruitful topics and questions for future research.     

水工程项目后期扶持的移民参与机制研究

后期扶持是我国解决水工程移民遗留问题的一项特殊政策。移民参与后期扶持既有理论基础,又有法律依据,还有域外实践经验。近年来,库区和移民安置区通过创设移民自治机构、公开政策信息、民主选择项目等途径践行移民参与机制,取得了一定成效,但也面临参与意识不强、能力不足、机制不全的障碍。为了发挥移民参与的效能,必须进一步完善参与法规,培育移民组织,提升参与能力,畅通参与渠道。     

浅谈工程总承包

概述了工程总承包的定义，分析了在实际工作中对工程总承包认识存在的偏差。     

浅析市场调查在营销决策中的应用

随着竞争环境的加剧,企业之间的竞争已经发展为对于信息处理及掌控的竞争,因此,在现代企业经营活动中,市场调查已经成为企业进行市场经营决策的前提和基础,成为企业开展营销策划活动,获取市场信息的有效工具。当今社会,市场竞争异常激烈,企业要制定营销战略必须在对市场情况有深入的了解基础上进行。某些成功的企业家善于把握市场机遇,就源于科学的市场调查。一旦掌握了信息,就有机会识别机遇。企业的管理人员在进行决策时,需要了解企业自身、顾客以及竞争对手等多方面的信息,只有在实际市场调查中,才能获得答案,才能为企业的管理决策提供客观依据。否则,就会成为脱离实际的盲目的决策。也就意味着挫折、失败和损失。     

消费者购买决策影响因素分析

本文对影响消费者购买决策过程的因素进行分析和阐述，即消费者个人特点、心理因素、社会因素。虽然我们分析讨论每个因素，但必须注意它们在影响消费者购买决策过程中是互相联系的。     

Communication Strategies and Marketing Performance: An Application of the Mohr and Nevin Framework to Intra-Organisational Cross-Functional Teams

Communication, and its key role in facilitating teamworking and knowledge management, is at the heart of research designed to understand the best approaches to managing teamwork and integration across functions and business partners. This understanding is necessary to improve the development of new products and services, and improve marketing efficiency. The research framework of Mohr and Nevin (1990) provides an interesting model, relating aspects of channel communication with channel performance, to achieve such improvements. Our model and hypotheses utilises Mohr and Nevin's unique framework as our starting point in examining the impact of communication strategy in intraorganisational cross-functional teams upon their team outcomes. We tested our model by collecting data from 42 organisational teams (237 respondents) and found that the model Mohr and Nevin proposed transfers well to the intra-organisational context. Our main finding supported the relationship between team communication behaviours and team performance. In addition, we found significant differences in this relationship depending upon the nature of the offer created by the industry (tangible good or intangible service) examined.     

An Empirical Analysis of Follower Entry Timing Decisions

Followers frequently incur market share penalties due to delayed entry. How might they then respond to a pioneer? This paper attempts to answer this question. Followers are assumed to be able to respond by choosing a time interval of entry relative to the pioneer, and by focusing on consumer relative preferences for their brand. These choices potentially involve different trade-offs. For example, achieving higher relative preferences may result in an entry delay that would increase the leadtime. We argue that the follower's response will depend on the magnitude of the pioneering effect. Our analysis of the ASSESSOR database indicates that followers respond primarily by reducing leadtimes. We further find that later followers achieve higher consumer relative preferences than earlier followers do. While these findings merit generalizability as they concern multiple brands and categories, many of which still exist, their implications should be qualified with caution since the data do not go beyond 1984.

     

Multiperiod Scenario Development Using Group Support Systems: An Application to the Future of Hong Kong

Managers facing substantial uncertainties often find it helpful to construct scenarios describing alternative futures. Knowledgeable people may have useful information, observations, and impressions relevant to these futures, but in some organizations and societies they may also be reluctant to openly discuss their ideas. Group support systems (GSS) have been shown to be useful in constructing and analyzing scenarios under these conditions. However, much of this work is based on single-period views that describe the end state of a system without examination of intermediate states leading up to the end state. We show how GSS can be used to construct 2-period scenarios that include 1 intermediate state. In addition, one can use this information to estimate long run effects by calculating the equilibrium probabilities of a stationary Markov chain. We then apply this approach to develop 2-period scenarios that describe possible futures for Hong Kong.     

Analytical Support to Negotiations: An Empirical Assessment

Twenty-three cases of international negotiation are analyzed and compared to better understand the role of analytical and informational tools in supporting practical negotiators. For each case, data were gathered through interviews with Austrian diplomats on the type and amount of analytical support provided, associated bureaucratic support, and problems encountered, along with a host of key factors about the case itself-the issues, situation, strategies, process, structures, and outcomes. These data were coded and analyzed statistically. It was found that most analytical support is qualitative in nature and can be categorized as information organizing tools, comparison methods and creativity techniques; economic negotiations, in particular, tended to be supported more by quantitative methods, including forecasting and statistical models. Analytical support is particularly important to understand own and other side positions and strategies and to bolster complex negotiations that require issue packaging. A generational gap between senior and mid-level diplomats emerged: junior practitioners expressed a greater interest in analytical support tools. In general, the application of analytical support was perceived positively among practitioners and was correlated with the achievement of treaties and comprehensive solutions. These findings suggest that there needs to be greater investment in developing and providing practical analytical support to negotiators, more supporting infrastructure to facilitate the use of these techniques, and increased training opportunities.