Service Science Management Engineering and Design (SSMED): a semiautomatic literature review

ABSTRACT

SSMED (Service Science, Management Engineering and Design) is multidisciplinary by nature. However, some authors stated that SSMED publications remain focused on single scientific domains. This paper proposes a Semiautomatic Literature Review (SALR) using integrated techniques for knowledge extraction –‘Time Aware Knowledge Extraction’ (TAKE) – to analyse the interdisciplinarity of SSMED publications and the potential for transdisciplinarity based on the actual adoption of Service-Dominant Logic as the foundation of SSMED research. Findings reveal that: 1) most SSMED publications are not interdisciplinary and are mainly related to Management; 2) Service-Dominant Logic has been adopted very often in SSMED publications, paving the way for SSMED transdisciplinarity.

This paper offers theoretical and practical insights by enhancing the knowledge about SSMED literature and enriching the state of the art related to techniques to perform literature reviews. Furthermore, it stimulates the expansion of scholars’ and managers’ views of holistic approaches to service systems while fostering SSMED viability.     

Fiscal-monetary policy coordination and debt management: a two-stage analysis

We study interactions between two policymakers, central bank and government, in managing public debt as the result of a two-stage game. In the first stage, the institutional regime is established. This determines the equilibrium solution for the second stage, in which a differential game is played between the two policymakers. It is shown that, if the policymakers can communicate before the game is played (multiple-equilibrium), coordination problems can be solved by using the concept of correlated equilibrium.

Cardinal versus ordinal criteria in choice under risk with disconnected utility ranges

This paper provides a formal justification for the existence of subjective random components intrinsic to the outcome evaluation process of decision makers and explicitly assumed in the stochastic choice literature. We introduce the concepts of admissible error function and generalized certainty equivalent, which allow us to analyze two different criteria, a cardinal and an ordinal one, when defining suitable approximations to expected utility values. Contrary to the standard literature requirements for irrational preferences, adjustment errors arise in a natural way within our setting, their existence following directly from the disconnectedness of the range of the utility functions. Conditions for the existence of minimal errors are also studied. Our results imply that neither the cardinal nor the ordinal criterion do necessarily provide the same evaluation for two or more different prospects with the same expected utility value. As a consequence, a rational decision maker may define two different generalized certainty equivalents when presented with the same prospect in two different occasions.     

Foresight studies undertaken by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands

With technology gaining greater recognition as a key factor in the economic performance of a country, foresight studies to identify emerging technologies get more attention. In a lot of countries foresight studies are carried out in order to target national resources to better improve economic competitiveness. This article describes foresight studies done in the Netherlands. Started as an experiment by the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1989 they are now an integral part of the methods for determining technology policy in the Netherlands.
The ministry defined three objectives for the foresight studies: (a) they must generate information for strategic technology policy; (b) they have to provide SME's with advance information about the possibilities for application of new technologies; (c) they have to stimulate the creation of networks between actors in industry, research and the educational system who are involved in a defined technology area. From six studies done so far (adhesives, chipcards, mecha-tronics, matrix composites, signal processing and separation technology) the author shows how these objectives were met, which bottlenecks and which opportunities were identified and which activities were set up to exploit the situation in a certain technology area. She concludes that it is essential for the success of the foresight studies to bring together different stakeholders, to create consensus between them on future directions and to commit them to the results.     

A Self-regulating Information Acquisition Algorithm for Preventing Choice Regret in Multi-perspective Decision Making

In a world filled with an increasing number of choices people must carefully select the information they acquire in order to make sound decisions that they will not regret in the future. This ranges from everyday life decisions to those made by experts in the business world. The authors introduce a novel information acquisition algorithm based on the value that information has when preventing a decision maker from regretting his or her current decision. The main features of the model include the capacity to account for different risk attitudes of the decision maker as well as his or her forward-looking behavior, the ability to assess choice objects (projects or products) defined by multiple characteristics and a self-regulation mechanism for the information acquisition process, even in the absence of information acquisition costs. The main properties of the algorithm are examined numerically.     

Investigating social motivations,opportunity and ability to participate in communities of virtual co‐creation

Communities of virtual co‐creation are emerging as a new form of consumer engagement, where through a collaborative and interactive process, ideas and knowledge from consumer are applied differently to create new value for the consumers themselves, the company and all stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to explore the drivers, namely motivation, opportunity and ability, of consumer willingness to participate in communities of virtual co‐creation. The role of social motivations, that is, altruism and social reputation, particularly relevant inside online communities, is investigated. Data were collected through an online survey on 180 consumers from diverse nationalities. The unit of analysis was a virtual co‐creation activity for food products. Findings show that consumer motivation and ability have a relevant influence on willingness to participate in co‐creation projects, while opportunity has not. In particular, ability showed to be the most relevant factor, suggesting that virtual co‐creation initiatives should be properly designed to facilitate the engagement of consumers. Further, results indicate that consumers' motivations are driven by both altruism and social reputation, where altruism plays a greater role. This confirms that social relations are key motivational drivers in virtual communities, where value is created through interaction with like‐minded people, exchange of information and experiences, provision of support.     

Factors Affecting Food Label Complexity: Does the New EU Regulation Satisfy Consumer Issues? An Exploratory Study

There is still a substantial information asymmetry between producers and consumers. Despite the recent EU regulation on labeling to enhance consumer food safety and the existence of a number of certifications on sustainable food products, there remain blind spots in the widely debated consumer information issue. Our study, conducted on primary data processed with a probit model, was aimed at identifying the factors that may affect consumer response in relation to difficulties in interpreting the labels of processed food products. Starting from theoretical models, several factors held responsible for defining the consumer’s knowledge were used as explanatory variables. Our results show that despite changes in the new legislation, there remains the problem of the consumer’s lack of knowledge concerning environmental labeling and product certification.