Interim Realities

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a study of information technology implementation practices in National Health Service hospitals in England. The results suggest that there is a general direction of travel, which involves the progressive linking together of individual systems, so that they are interoperable. We argue that the findings are consistent with meta-governance arguments, but that it is necessary to complement this perspective with an understanding of the nature of information technologies in order to understand them properly. We suggest that ‘interim systems’ will be the reality on the ground for many health care organizations for the foreseeable future.     

The adaptive approach for storage assignment by mining data of warehouse management system for distribution centres

Among distribution centre operations, order picking has been reported to be the most labour-intensive activity. Sophisticated storage assignment policies adopted to reduce the travel distance of order picking have been explored in the literature. Unfortunately, previous research has been devoted to locating entire products from scratch. Instead, this study intends to propose an adaptive approach, a Data Mining-based Storage Assignment approach (DMSA), to find the optimal storage assignment for newly delivered products that need to be put away when there is vacant shelf space in a distribution centre. In the DMSA, a new association index (AIX) is developed to evaluate the fitness between the put away products and the unassigned storage locations by applying association rule mining. With AIX, the storage location assignment problem (SLAP) can be formulated and solved as a binary integer programming. To evaluate the performance of DMSA, a real-world order database of a distribution centre is obtained and used to compare the results from DMSA with a random assignment approach. It turns out that DMSA outperforms random assignment as the number of put away products and the proportion of put away products with high turnover rates increase.     

A literature review on business process modelling: new frontiers of reusability

Business process modelling (BPM) has become fundamental for modern enterprises due to the increasing rate of organisational change. As a consequence, business processes need to be continuously (re-)designed as well as subsequently aligned with the corresponding enterprise information systems. One major problem associated with the design of business processes is reusability. Reuse of business process models has the potential of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of BPM. This article critically surveys the existing literature on the problem of BPM reusability and more specifically on that State-of-the-Art research that can provide or suggest the ‘elements’ required for the development of a methodology aimed at discovering reusable conceptual artefacts in the form of patterns. The article initially clarifies the definitions of business process and business process model; then, it sets out to explore the previous research conducted in areas that have an impact on reusability in BPM. The article concludes by distilling directions for future research towards the development of apatterns-based approach to BPM; an approach that brings together the contributions made by the research community in the areas of process mining and discovery, declarative approaches and ontologies.     

An enhanced dynamic hash TRIE algorithm for lexicon search

Information retrieval (IR) is essential to enterprise systems along with growing orders, customers and materials. In this article, an enhanced dynamic hash TRIE (eDH-TRIE) algorithm is proposed that can be used in a lexicon search in Chinese, Japanese and Korean (CJK) segmentation and in URL identification. In particular, the eDH-TRIE algorithm is suitable for Unicode retrieval. The Auto-Array algorithm and Hash-Array algorithm are proposed to handle the auxiliary memory allocation; the former changes its size on demand without redundant restructuring, and the latter replaces linked lists with arrays, saving the overhead of memory. Comparative experiments show that the Auto-Array algorithm and Hash-Array algorithm have better spatial performance; they can be used in a multitude of situations. The eDH-TRIE is evaluated for both speed and storage and compared with the naïve DH-TRIE algorithms. The experiments show that the eDH-TRIE algorithm performs better. These algorithms reduce memory overheads and speed up IR.     

Uncertainty,the Lemon Problem,Asymmetric Information and Countertrade

Abstract

A review of the International Trade literature suggests that uncertainty caused by the lack of perfect information and/or asymmetric information provides a motivation for countertrade (Hennart, 1990; Mirus & Yeung, 1986; Yavas & Vardiabasis, 1988). After presenting the most prevalent forms and examples of countertrade, this study shows how uncertainty can lead to some of the most common forms of countertrade; counterpurchase, buyback and offset. The paper compares and contrasts two strategies facing the management team of a profit-maximizing firm. The standard neoclassical mathematical model developed and presented shows that countertrade strategy may be superior to standard money-mediated trade strategy when there is uncertainty. Therefore, countertrade (particularly, buyback, counterpurchase and offset) may be a rational response to conditions that restrict standard trade. As such, countertrade can supplement standard money-mediated trade and contribute to the growth of international business.     

Dynamic contracting under imperfect public information and asymmetric beliefs

We develop a dynamic principal–agent model to show how imperfect public information and asymmetric beliefs about payoff-relevant parameters, agency conflicts, and the agent's implicit incentives to influence the principal's posterior beliefs through his unobservable actions interact to affect optimal dynamic contracts. We make a methodological contribution to the literature by solving the continuous-time contracting problem using a discrete-time approximation approach. We obtain a simple characterization of optimal renegotiation-proof contracts in terms of the solution to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE). We then exploit the properties of the ODE to derive a number of novel implications for the dynamics of long-term contracts that alter the intuition gleaned from the previous literature. Optimism has a first-order impact on incentives, investment and output that could reconcile the “private equity” puzzle. Consistent with empirical evidence, the interaction between asymmetric beliefs, risk-sharing and adverse selection costs could cause the time-paths of the agent's incentive intensities to be increasing or decreasing. Our results also suggest that the incorporation of imperfect public information and asymmetric beliefs could potentially reconcile empirical evidence of an ambiguous relation between risk and incentives, and a non-monotonic relation between firm value and incentives. Permanent and transitory components of risk have differing effects on incentives, which suggest that empirical investigations of the link between risk and incentives should appropriately account for different components of risk.     

新媒体影响下的危机信息传播问题研究——以雅安地震为例

4.20雅安地震发生后,以微博、微信为代表的新兴媒体在及时发布危机和援助救援信息,构建立体寻人网络,保障救灾工作的顺利进行等方面发挥了强有力的独特作用,新媒体俨然成为危机信息发布的主要渠道和有效平台.本文以雅安地震为例,剖析了新媒体环境中危机信息的传播与扩散机理,探讨新媒体在突发事件中的重要作用与影响,进而总结危机信息发布与监控新特点,为管理者的应急决策提供理论依据和合理建议.     

关于南京发展交通物流的思考

以南京为例,介绍如何对交通物流系统进行规划,详细分析物流基地体系布局格局,服务体系主要内容,信息平台总体构架和功能等。     

金融危机下国企多级委托代理链的思考与建议

拉动内需是金融危机环境下推动经济发展的可行方法,而国有企业在拉动内需环节上起到中坚作用。由此,国有企业的改革再次引起政府和学术界的重视,本文从委托代理的角度,剖析国有企业存在的问题,并对其问题提出了合理化的建议。     

国外一般消费品召回管理机构及召回信息公示工作对我国的启示

2010年《家用电器产品召回管理规定》征求意见稿已面向全社会征求意见。在我国一般消费品召回比起汽车召回才刚刚起步。文章从美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、欧盟、日本等几个一般消费品召回较成熟的国家或地区出发,分析了一般消费品的召回管理机构、法律、召回公示信息等内容,以期对我国一般消费品制度、法律及信息：佥示等内容起到借鉴作用。