Learning curves in collaborative planning,forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR) information systems: An empirical analysis from a mobile phone manufacturer

While Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) information systems have been increasingly deployed to improve supply chain operations in a cross section of industries, the extant literature has largely overlooked the learning effects within organizations, thereby resulting in incomplete assessment of their business value. Using an operational-level panel data for nine product lines over 2.5 years, we empirically examine the learning curves in CPFR between Motorola, a mobile phone manufacturer, and one of its U.S.-based national retail partners. We found that the two key components of CPFR, collaborative forecasting (CF) and collaborative replenishment (CR), exhibit distinct learning curves. Forecast accuracy improves immediately following CPFR implementation but the rate of improvement slows over time, whereas inventory levels increase at first and begin decreasing after a period. Further, we found different learning effects in terms of inventory levels when products are later replaced with new form factors. Product replacements have lower inventory levels than their antecedents, at least for low-end products. We discuss important implications for theory and practice at the interface of information systems and operations management.     

Evaluating the Adequacy of Parametric Functional Forms in Estimating Monotone and Concave Production Functions

We consider situations where the a priori guidance provided by theoretical considerations indicates only that the function linking the endogenous and exogenous variables is monotone and concave (or convex). We present methods to evaluate the adequacy of a parametric functional form to represent the relationship given the minimal maintained assumption of monotonicity and concavity (or convexity). We evaluate the adequacy of an assumed parametric form by comparing the deviations of the fitted parametric form from the observed data with the corresponding deviations estimated under DEA. We illustrate the application of our proposed methods using data collected from school districts in Texas. Specifically, we examine whether the Cobb–Douglas and translog specifications commonly employed in studies of education production are appropriate characterizations. Our tests reject the hypotheses that either the Cobb–Douglas or the translog specification is an adequate approximation to the general monotone and concave production function for the Texas school districts.     

Effects of relationship climate, control mechanism, and communications on conflict resolution behavior and performance outcomes

In this two-year study we develop and test a comprehensive model of conflict management. The conceptual model commences by demonstrating the importance of channel members’ past history of interactions as ‘setting the stage’ for members’ present ability to interact, that is, communicate, resolve conflict disputes, and ultimately, culminate in performance outcomes (financial as well as relational). In effect, we track the full gamut of conflict management related constructs in the conceptual model, from antecedent conditions to the consequents of conflict management. Empirical results, utilizing a sample of 282 retailing agents affiliated to a large North American supplier (principal) across two years, indicate strong evidence for fourteen of the eighteen hypotheses drawn from our conceptual model. Specifically, among other effects, data reveal that past history of cooperative versus conflictive orientations and bureaucratic versus trust-based governance mechanisms significantly influence the communication strategies adopted, which in turn determine whether the distributive or integrative conflict resolution behaviors are adopted. Further, the choice of conflict resolution behaviors adopted commensurately influences relational performance, and the type of communication strategy adopted influences financial performance. The paper concludes with a series of managerial implications and an agenda for future research.     

Firm-level export performance in an inward-looking economy: The Indian engineering industry

This paper investigates some influences on export activity by the 100 largest engineering enterprises in India in the period 1966–1968 to 1976–1978. Among the interesting findings are that exporting is negatively correlated with profitability and technological activity, but that there are some major exporters who find exporting increasingly profitable and relate their R and D activity more to exporting over time. In general the findings illustrate at a disaggregated level the anti-export bias of the industrialization strategy pursued by India.     

Local public goods and average cost pricing

Existence of a compensated Tiebout equilibrium is proved for an economy with a measure space of consumers. This result is then extended to show the existence of equilibrium for an economy with natural monopolies and contestable markets.     

Implementation of the SutteARIMA method to predict short-term cases of stock market and COVID-19 pandemic in USA

Quality & Quantity - The objective of this study is to compare the different methods which are effective in predicting data of the short-term effect of COVID-19 confirmed cases and DJI closed...     

THE EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF FINANCIAL PRACTICES

This paper presents a model in which financial practices are chosen by decentralized units on the basis of expectations regarding financial market conditions, while the probability distribution governing market conditions itself depends on the choices made. If all agents are unboundedly rational, there is a unique equilibrium in which expectations are self-fulfilling. The assumption of universal unbounded rationality is relaxed by introducing an optimization cost, which leads to the possibility that optimizers may not have a sufficiently great evolutionary advantage to eliminate nonoptimizers entirely. In this case behavioral heterogeneity can persist even in the long run. For certain classes of probability distributions governing financial conditions, the evolutionary dynamics of population composition can help explain a number of stylized facts regarding the dynamics of financial practices which have hitherto been explained on the basis of learning dynamics or systematic cognitive biases.     

Texas Roundtable on: The Future of Graduate Business School Education

A small group of academics and practitioners discuss the challenges now facing today's business schools. First and foremost is the challenge now being mounted by “online” courses to the traditional methods of classroom lecture and discussion, supplemented in some cases by apprenticeships and other kinds of “experiential” learning. How will traditional universities burdened with high and rising fixed costs for buildings and faculty compete with very low‐cost competitors—programs that reportedly have enabled star lecturers to reach audiences that, in some cases, have exceeded 100,000 students? In assessing the seriousness of the challenge, the panelists start by attempting to articulate what is valuable in current business school education—valuable enough to enable the best business schools to command as much as $175,000 for two‐year (or shorter) programs that confer MBAs. Much of the discussion focuses on establishing the relative importance of the disciplines, or body of knowledge, that are taught in business schools, as compared to the development of “collaborative” habits and interpersonal skills aimed at enabling students to make more effective use of their knowledge within large organizations. Some of the panelists, notably Jeff Sandefer, founder of the (now ten‐year old) Acton School of Business, argue that far too much of today's business school curriculum is devoted to the classroom and conventional learning. And many of the changes in the top business schools during the past decade appear to reflect Sandefer's charges. But, to the extent there is a consensus among the other panelists, it is that the best business schools will continue to try to accomplish both of these goals, though with varying degrees of effectiveness, while most schools attempt to maintain their specialized capabilities, and carve out distinctive niches based on them. For some schools, such specialization is likely to mean continued emphasis on theory and classroom learning—though almost certainly with more attention to practical application and collaborative decision‐making. For other schools, the main focus will continue to be the development of general management and leadership skills.     

The impact of cultural differences in U.S. business-to-business export marketing channel strategic alliances

Given slower growth and fierce competition in the domestic market, combined with increasing opportunities in many overseas markets, more and more U.S. companies are going international. While many doing so may initially use a direct exporting approach that relies on foreign channel members to distribute the product in the host country, over time, strategic alliances among distribution partners may form based on trust, commitment, and cooperation. For these alliances to succeed, the partners' perceptions of these variables need to be congruent so that expectations on each side of the dyad are reasonably similar. However, what happens when the cultural backgrounds of each channel partner are substantially different? This study empirically examines whether cultural differences do affect trust, commitment, and cooperation in international marketing channel alliances between U.S. exporters and their foreign distribution partners. Based on the survey responses from 149 U.S. exporters with marketing alliances abroad, cultural differences do affect trust, commitment, and cooperation. The greater the cultural differences between channel partners, the lower the levels of trust, commitment, and cooperation. Managerial implications are discussed, and study limitations are identified.