Developing a process of concept generation for new product-service systems: a QFD and TRIZ-based approach

This research aims at suggesting a novel approach to creating promising product-service system (PSS) concepts by resolving contradictions between product and service components. In order to resolve these interference problems, theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) method is applied and the suitability of this method for PSS is evaluated by applying the 40 inventive principles in TRIZ method to PSS cases among Fortune Global 500 companies. In addition, quality function deployment is adopted to identify the critical features of products and services. By applying the suggested approach to a car sharing service, a representative automobile PSS, its practicability and utility are verified.     

An ecosystemic framework for business sustainability

This article introduces an ecosystemic framework to foster innovation for business sustainability. We emphasize the idea of systemic thinking in which the business operates as a system similar to a living organism. In this framework, businesses impact the environment in which they operate in a fluid, dynamic, and interdependent way. This approach contrasts with the linear approach commonly used in business and other disciplines, which tries to explain what might cause an action or reaction but ignores any feedback effect between the subsequent action and its cause. This article offers practical solutions and guidance for business leaders to incorporate complexity science into creating sustainable businesses.     

The globalization of markets and regional integration

The 1980s have witnessed the globalization of markets and an intensified international competition. The rise of the newly industrializing countries and the growth of multinational enterprises—developing parallely to foreign direct investments—have contributed considerably to this trend. However, there are factors suggesting that the intensification of market competition might be only a transitory phenomenon.     

The legal framework and initiatives for promoting safety in the United Arab Emirates

Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is a rapidly developing country with fast economic growth, demographical and environmental changes that are associated with new hazards emerging at a similar pace. The UAE as a federal entity has federal and local systems responsible for safety policy, regulations and enforcement. To set priorities for safety promotion and injury prevention, it is necessary to have data on the most frequent external causes of injury and the main individual, equipment and environmental risk factors that contribute to injury. However good quality data for injury prevention are scarce. The aim of this paper is to describe the scale of injury as a public health problem in the UAE, and the development of safety policies, regulations and promotion efforts with special emphasis on traffic, occupational and child safety.     

Towards an agent middleware framework for e-commerce

A number of challenges face the developers of distributed agent-based solutions. This is especially true for those developing agent-based solutions for electronic commerce. Key challenges include secure and efficient software agent deployment, secure communications and the difficulties of developing and monitoring agent systems deployed across a network. This paper reports on the development of a Java-based agent distribution framework which provides the following advantages for developing agent-based electronic commerce applications: (1) a secure agent dispatch mechanism based upon agent authentication and role-based security levels, (2) inter-agent communication means that include peer-to-peer communication via its own published objects as well as a multicast event service, (3) encrypted object streams for unicast and multicast communications, (4) reflective communication monitoring for agent system development and visualization, (5) mechanisms for efficient agent distribution, and (6) an easy-to-use environment for making small footprint agents. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An integrative framework for customer switching behavior

Due to increased intensity of competition, retention of customers has become a major concern in many service industries. Although researchers have investigated customer switching intention and its influential factors, the complex structural mechanisms that reduce the likelihood of switching intention in the field of financial services, especially in the banking context, have remained understudied. This paper addresses the role of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, customer trust, and customer perceived value within a new conceptual model for customer switching intention in the banking services. In particular, the paper contributes to examine the potential moderating effect of switching barriers on the relationship between customer loyalty and switching intention as well as the relationship between satisfaction and switching intention of customers in the banking services. Data are collected through a questionnaire survey, and partial least squares-structural equation modeling is used for data analysis. Empirical results confirm the proposed model and hypotheses and show that switching barriers strengthen the impact of both customer loyalty and satisfaction on switching intention. The findings of this research offer a unified view of the structural relationships that contribute to reduced switching intention and provide more in-depth insights into the role of switching barriers in the banking context.     

A research framework for group support systems

Over the last decade, many methodologies and techniques have been devised to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cooperative working. The efficacy of many of these approaches has not been rigorously assessed, causing doubt about their applicability and helping restrict their use. Additionally, research effort has been dissipated. The need is for a generally agreed framework within which research can be conducted and results determined. This article proposes such a framework, involving the identification of the context, process, and outcome variables which, a priori, are deemed important to understanding, and subsequently predicting, the appropriate forms of intervention in the workings of groups. Six major components have been identified: the organizational environment, the group context, the process context, the group process, the substantive outcomes, and process performance indicators. Within these six components, 16 macrovariables have been identified. Within these macrovariables, 90 variables have been selected that characterize an issue-handling situation and its outcomes. The framework is applicable to a very wide range of group support systems used in many contexts.     

A framework for international monetary reform?

The European Monetary System (EMS) has, so far, proved to be a success. The regional approach to the promotion of monetary stability, in terms of both more predictable exchange rates and a reduction in inflation, is the only option available to Europe as attempts to create a new international monetary system without an inflation bias and national initiatives to reduce inflation have failed. Can the EMS, building on its success, so evolve as to facllitate the reform of the international monetary system and the permanent reduction of inflation?     

The integration of Japan into the world economy and its meaning for Germany

Japan is currently still characterized by a low degree of import integration in the field of finished products. What are the reasons behind this? What can be done to remove the existing trade imbalances vis-à-vis Western industrialized countries? What, on the other hand, can be learned from the Japanese?     

A novel framework for customer complaint management

Complaining is one option available to customers to express their dissatisfaction with inadequate services. Their complaints contain valuable information for service providers to improve customer relationships and operational quality, which can ultimately enhance business profitability. Customer complaints are frequently handled at the individual level, however, which addresses the symptoms rather than the causes of customer dissatisfaction. This paper presents a framework integrating a decision tree approach, a common data mining tool, into Six Sigma methodology to analyze customer complaints in aggregate and improve service quality by identifying and addressing the underlying causes of failed service. A case study of a restaurant chain was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The results indicated a significant (60%) decrease in the number of customer complaints received. Subsequent long-term benefits can be expected.     

Competition for firms in an oligopolistic industry: The impact of economic integration

We set up a model of generalised oligopoly where two countries of different size compete for an exogenous, but variable, number of identical firms. The model combines a desire by national governments to attract internationally mobile firms with the existence of location rents that arise even in a symmetric equilibrium where firms are dispersed. As economic integration proceeds, equilibrium taxes initially decline, but then rise again as trade costs fall even further. A range of trade costs is identified where economic integration raises the welfare of the small country, but lowers welfare in the large country.     

Optimal integration strategies for the multinational firm

We examine integration strategies of multinational firms that face a rich array of choices of international organization. Each firm must provide headquarter services from its home country, but can produce its intermediate inputs and conduct assembly operations in one or more of three locations. We study the equilibrium choices of firms that differ in productivity levels, focusing on the role that industry characteristics such as the fixed costs of foreign subsidiaries, the cost of transporting intermediate and final goods, and the regional composition of the consumer market play in determining the optimal integration strategies.     

The reality of integration within the european union

The European Single Market program has put in place legislation that provides the free circulation of goods, capital, and people. Further, the recent implementation of monetary union provides a single currency and a common monetary policy in 11 out of the 15 Member States. Yet significant practical barriers to European integration remain. Legislation concerning taxation and company law is still primarily nationally based. More fundamentally from a business perspective, the European environment continues to be characterized by divergent industry structures and national cultures. Although there is considerable momentum for political and economic integration at present, this deep-seated national diversity remains strong and can hinder businesses from adopting an integrated approach toward the European Union. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

中国跨国公司跨国并购的文化整合探讨

中国企业已经走向跨国并购的发展阶段,但与西方跨国公司相比,还存在较大的差距,尤其是在跨国文化整合上还处在探索阶段.文化整合影响着并购企业的经营,乃至成败.因此探讨文化整合问题对国内的企业跨国并购有着深远的意义.     

A framework for conducting a customer orientation audit

It can be all too easy for senior managers, especially those in large organisations to become cut off from their customers and hold comfortable illusions about how well products and services are being received. This underscores the difficulties companies face in sustaining a systematic programme of customer orientation. This paper argues that the difficulties arise primarily from lack of effective internal organisation. It provides a framework which is intended to help decision makers in organisations to analyse and evaluate their overall customer strategies, and determine whether or not such strategies truly reflect a culture of customer orientation. The method offered here is requisite for strategic customer management, which is called for in today's turbulent business environment.