Sales Strategy Mining Support with Visualization of Moving History

Strategic usage in data mining of sales data has come under increased focus as a result of the growth of data mining studies using electrical data, such as Point of Sale (POS) data. However, many of these mining systems only output results such as frequently appearing patterns, while, instead, they should be aimed at people who mine data. In this paper, a framework for leading and supporting new ideas from data is introduced. Based on this framework, a system that supports strategic usage in the data mining of sales data is proposed. The system deals not only with POS data, but also with the moving history of each customer. The system visualizes POS and moving history data, so that an analyzer inputs conditions to narrow down customers and acquires customer features. In addition to the ordinal outputs of a mining system, the analyzer interprets the meaning of his/her input and output to create a new strategy based on the framework. According to the experimental results, new strategies derived from the moving history were created.     

Broadband Demand Analysis for Network Building

An increase of broadband demand is forecasted by transitional methods that consider the effect of this increase through many factors, such as customer requirement diversification, and new service introduction and deployment under competition. Broadband demand forecasting has become important for closing the digital divide, promoting regional developments, and constructing networks economically; therefore, a demand forecast model that considers the mechanisms of market structure is necessary. In this paper, a demand analysis method for broadband access combining macro- and micro-data mining is proposed, and the service choice behaviour of customers is introduced as a customer model not only to express the macro trend of market structure, but also to consider area marketing. The proposed method can estimate the potential demand, determine the point at which broadband demand growth peaks in a specified area, and support a decision for ultra high-speed broadband access facility installation.     

Modeling Bank Runs in Financial Crises

In recent years, financial crises have occurred frequently in each region, and banks are facing harsh management environments. Bank runs of customers during a financial crisis are one of a bank’s most serious risks. This research aims to build a bank run model for financial crises, use that model to estimate the amount of deposit funds which flow out, and propose a framework for financial crisis risk management. The model proposed in this paper enables understanding of the factors which have the largest impacts on bank runs, providing valuable information for banks to cope with such risks. The model uses survey data, and clarified that bank runs have differences which depend on customer characteristics and branch location. We understood that during a financial crisis, an appropriate branch strategy must be adopted depending on the location and customer characteristics of each bank branch.     

别样瑞友科技：因邵凯而“个性”

哈佛商学院教授迈克尔·波特（Michael porter）曾说,竞争性战略就是要做到与众不同,它要求企业家表达一种独特的价值理念。 在中国IT服务业,瑞友科技这个名字出现的时间不过3年,但她绝对是一个响当当的品牌。这并不是因为她脱身于用友,而是因为她有一个深受客户好评的独特的价值理念——个性化IT服务。     

Research Note: The Paradox of Cloud Computing in Japan

Cloud Computing is defined as computer usage delivered as a service over the Internet. This cloud computing is classified as public computing, private computing, or hybrid computing. Public cloud computing is open to any customer who pays service charges. On the contrary, private cloud computing is used by a member of a company who has constructed a cloud computing system over a restricted domain on that company's information infrastructure. Hybrid cloud computing is a mix of both the public and private. Which type of cloud computing is popular in Japan? To answer this question I mailed questionnaires to 2,284 enterprises listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Market in 2012 and 2013. I analyzed the relationship between these answers and financial indexes using a multinomial logistic regression model. I concluded that the total assets was the most effective factor in the decision to introduce the public cloud, and the accumulated profit was one of the most effective factors in the decision to introduce the hybrid cloud. These findings are not consistent with orthodox price theory.     

A Pricing Strategy with Consumption Externality when the Reference Group is Large

This paper provides an analysis of firms’ optimal prices when individual utility exhibits both material and other consumer effects. We construct a model and conduct an analysis in the following four steps: (1) By using a conjoint analysis of data, we set up a hierarchical Bayesian model and estimate its parameters, which are composed of individual utility functions. (2) We calculate the number of sales in each time period and derive the total sales throughout the given period. (3) We estimate the demand functions in the presence and absence of consumption externalities. (4) Finally, we calculate the profit functions and derive the optimal prices taking into account various product attributes. By applying our analysis to the book market of Japan, we find that the optimal price is lower when an externality is present than when absent. The intuition behind this result is that pricing low and selling a large number of books from an early stage increases the externality effect, yielding a higher profit for firms.     

Evaluation of a Multi-robot Cafe Based on Service Quality Dimensions

While AI applications are popular in many domains, they should work harmoniously with domain exerts and end users. Furthermore, to develop such harmonious AI applications, we need agile AI platforms for not only developers, but also domain experts. Currently, we have developed PRactical INTElligent aPplicationS (PRINTEPS), which is a user-centric platform to develop integrated intelligent applications. This paper reports on a multi-robot cafe as a practical application of PRINTEPS and evaluates its service quality at a university festival. It is not clear if robotic services are perceived as attractive and/or valuable, and how the concept of robotic services could lead to customer satisfaction. Therefore, the evaluation of the quality of such services is necessary to identify the key factors that could contribute to improving customer satisfaction. The purpose of this research is to identify key factors in improving customer satisfaction in robotic services by evaluating the service quality of the multi-robot cafe. We designed questionnaire items based on SERVQUAL which is one of the service quality evaluation measurement methods and conducted a questionnaire survey at a multi-robot cafe held at a university festival. From the collected data, we modeled and evaluated the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction to identify key factors in robotic services using a Bayesian network. In addition, the experiment confirms the usefulness of PRINTEPS.     

A Conjoint Analysis of a Next Generation Network (NGN) in Japan

A conjoint analysis on a Web survey in 2010 with 160 participants and 8 questions shows that a Marginal Willingness To Pay (MWTP) on a Next Generation Network (NGN) of Flet’s Hikari Next is lower than its actual price as provided by NTT East. Conjoint analysis is one application of conditional logit. MWTP is WTP when one unit of property is increased, and MWTP is used to verify how much each person evaluates each property. Higher transmission speed, digital TV availability, and higher Internet security affect the MWTP positively, and the amount of the monthly payment of NGN affects the MWTP negatively. Therefore, it is assumed that the NGN of Flet’s Hikari Next by NTT East will be accepted by potential customers and diffused as a major communications service of NTT East and NTT West. NGN providers may be able to maximize their benefits by adjusting the NGN of Flet’s Hikari Next property to meet customer demands, especially in digital TV availability, higher transmission speed, and communications security.     

Impact of Online Customer Reviews on Sales Outcomes: An Empirical Study Based on Prospect Theory

This study examines the influence of the valence of online customer reviews on sales outcomes based on prospect theory. Numerous studies have revealed the importance of customer reviews in online marketing. However, only few studies have explored the impact of online customer reviews on sales outcomes in the dynamic process. Prior studies in behavioral economics literature have indicated that people differently value gains and losses and that losses have more emotional impact than an equivalent amount of gains. This study verifies whether prospect theory applies to the relation between online customer reviews and sales outcomes. Relevant data were collected from Amazon.co.jp, and three statistical models were employed to investigate the relation between the two factors. Major findings confirm that negative customer reviews considerably impact online sales than positive reviews. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the marginal effects of positive and negative reviews decrease with the increase in their volume. The results of this study will enable marketers to compare the relative sales effects of different types of customer reviews and improve the effectiveness of customer service management.     

Defect Detection Using Unanimous Vote Among Mahalanobis Classifiers for Each Color Component

In manufacturing industries, product inspection is automated and the use of image data is increasingly being employed for defect detection. A manufacturing company in Japan produces an item and inspects the produced products using image data. Reducing the error rate is important in product inspection because poor inspection of products might lead to the delivery of defective products to consumers (consumer’s risk) and strict inspection increases production cost (producer’s risk). To reduce the error rate, we highlighted fault points using a two-dimensional moving range filter and discriminated defect production through a unanimous vote among Mahalanobis classifiers for each color component. For results, we achieved a lower error rate than the current system. This research is an empirical study of how to use image data in defect detection.     

对话于庆洲

实际上,我们现在所服务的行业,多方面已经实现了领跑者的理想。领跑者实际上就是要做别人没做、别人没想到的事情。我们要在客户还没想到的情况下,就提出解决方案。那时候客户才会猛然发现＂你的解决方案就是我想要的＂。     

PRINTEPS: An Integrated Intelligent Application Development Platform based on Stream Reasoning and ROS

Although AI and service robot applications have become very popular in many domains recently, many of them are specific applications and it is still difficult to develop integrated intelligent applications such as a robot teahouse and teaching assistant robots. To develop such integrated intelligent applications, we need integrated intelligent application platforms that have AI integration and agile process facilities. From the above background, we are currently developing PRactical INTElligent aPplicationS (PRINTEPS), which is a platform for developing integrated intelligent applications by combining only five types of modules, namely knowledge-based reasoning, spoken dialogue, image sensing, motion management, and machine learning. This paper proposes a workflow editor in PRINETPS based on a service-oriented architecture and a Robot Operating System that enables real-time parallel processing for multiple robots and sensors by integrating the five types of modules. The editor also supports not only developers but also domain experts in updating workflows frequently. This paper also proposes a novel method to integrate signals acquired through image sensing with knowledge (ontologies and business rules) using C-SPARQL and Semantic Web Rule Language. To evaluate PRINTEPS, we developed a robot teahouse application including customer reception and guidance to table services using a humanoid robot with PRINTEPS. Through this case study, we demonstrated that the behaviors of the robot can be modified by changing the workflow, the ontology, and the rules.     

CFO的战略思维和价值创造

价值创造是财务管理的目标，价值是企业财务的目标。为了实现这个目标，我们要研究按照什么路径去创造价值；为了使我们这个路径走得更顺畅，我们就要研究环境。     

清华科技园的国际孵化器

技术创新型企业面临的竞争是全球性的,在硅谷建设孵化器,有利于中国技术创新型企业的快速发展。     

李宪章：来自心灵的艺术

这是一次无声的访谈。2004年，李宪章先生因喉癌手术而失声，深受疾病之苦后．他又面临着没有语言的世界。但他没有放弃生活，更没有放弃梦想，而是用坚强的毅力、饱满的热情坚持不懈地潜心创作。这也是一次最漫长的访谈。记者的所有提问，李宪章先生都是用手一字一句写出来的。他没有任何悲观的心态．反而笑对一切。     

海淀北部：正在全力建设生态科技新区

2009年3月，国务院批复建设中关村国家自主创新示范区。2010年10月，北京市政府批复的《海淀北部地区控制性详细规划（街区层面）》提出，将海淀北部地区建设成为“具有全球影响力的科技创新基地，城乡统筹发展的典范地区和生态环境一流的城市发展新区”。简而言之，海淀北部地区未来将打造成为具有全球影响力的生态科技新区。     

安泰科技：新征程 再出发

安泰科技致力于成为世界知名的先进金属材料供应商,在非晶、纳米晶等众多先进能源材料领域为客户提供材料解决方案。在非晶态材料领域,安泰科技已成为全球第二大制造商。     

实创股份：金秋送爽“大丰收”

2011年以来．实创股份所属园区新签约入驻企业70多家。其中7月份就有25家企业入驻签约。新落户企业预计达产后将实现总收入240亿元以上,有助于快速提升北部研发服务和高新技术产业聚集区经济规模体量,有助于加快形成战略性新兴产业领域的高端集群。     

便利店：中外资新厮杀又起

服务是本土便利店与外资便利店之间最大的鸿沟。而寻找可靠的赢利模式是内资便利店发展的关键。     

An Advertising Strategy Using Consumption Externality and Forgetting in the Case of Japanese Electronic Books

We construct a two-period model in which a consumer recognizes the existence of goods after advertised by firms, and total sales of the first period affect the utility of each consumer’s purchase in the second period, indicating a consumption externality. Some consumers see advertisements in the first period and remember the product, whereas some forget the product in the second period. We show that the advertising volume changes given the differences in the forgetting rate. In particular, we apply our method to the data on Japan’s electronic books obtained through a conjoint analysis survey to clarify that a better strategy is to sell a product to a small number of people at a low price or to lower the price to a certain level during the early period, and then to sell the product to a specific consumer segment at a higher price after reflecting the externality.