The increasing prevalence of patent infringement litigation in recent decades has imposed significant costs on firms. This paper empirically examines how this legal risk influences a key operational decision: vertical integration. Drawing on the real options theory (ROT), we argue that managers reduce the extent of vertical integration to preserve flexibility and make operational adjustments in anticipation of unfavorable outcomes from patent lawsuits. Using a dataset of public firms and a text-based measure of vertical integration, our findings show that firms facing higher patent litigation risk are less vertically integrated. At the same time, these firms maintain broader supplier networks and product market scopes, consistent with a preference for leveraging market mechanisms to reduce the costs of exercising switch and exit options. The negative relationship between litigation risk and vertical integration is particularly pronounced in durable goods sectors and declining industries, where the ability to divest or halt operations is highly valued. Additionally, we find that firms diversify their supplier base and product and technology portfolios after facing patent lawsuits. However, more vertically integrated firms are slower to make these adjustments, suggesting that they encounter greater friction in exercising real options. Overall, our study highlights the significant role that intellectual property disputes play in shaping corporate vertical integration strategies.
As malpractice liability increases, physicians order more and more diagnostic tests/procedures to avoid potential lawsuits. Given the waste/costs of defensive medical practices, some U.S. states enacted tort reform to reduce malpractice liability. As key healthcare providers, hospitals face significant malpractice liability. Despite the fact that a vast amount of medical malpractice occurs in hospitals, the effects of tort reform on hospital performance have not been studied. This study examined tort reform's effects on four hospital cost/efficiency related measures (defensive medicine (DM) costs, occupancy rate (OR), operating cost (OC), and full-time equivalent (FTE) employees/bed) and two patient-centered measures (experiential quality (EQ) and patient satisfaction (PS)). Considering both cost and quality measures enabled an examination of whether a trade-off arises under tort reform—a trade-off uniquely relevant at the hospital-level. The research applied difference-in-differences methodology to longitudinal data from multiple sources and addressed methodological weaknesses in prior studies preventing causal attribution. The results showed that tort reform reduced DM costs, with an average savings of $372 per patient stay and a savings of $238 million for an average-sized hospital, decreased hospitals’ OC, with an average savings of $664 per patient stay and $4.23 million for an average-sized hospital and is associated with 0.22 fewer FTEs per bed. However, tort reform's reduction in OR was not statistically significant. The findings indicate that conclusions drawn from single medical specialty studies do not necessarily translate to hospitals with a full spectrum of healthcare services. With respect to the patient-oriented measures, experiential quality and patient satisfaction fell by 3.53% and 5.63%, respectively. The study is particularly germane given the challenges hospitals face in meeting both the cost and quality mandates of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) Value-based Purchasing (VBP) program and provides valuable insights for policymakers (at both government and hospital levels) for improving hospital performance.
Extensive studies have revealed that newsvendor decisions by human decision-makers are often biased by cognitive limitations, and, therefore, fail to achieve optimal profits prescribed by normative models. These biases are typically considered as liabilities in individual inventory decision-making, and much research has focused on developing methods to debias the decision-maker—for example, by providing decision support tools. However, in competitive settings biases can provide a competitive advantage, such that a biased newsvendor may earn a higher profit than an unbiased one. This raises the question of whether and when firms should debias their decision-makers. In this paper, we analyze decision biases that are endogenous rather than exogenous in competing newsvendor games. Specifically, we develop a two-stage game-theoretic model in which competing firms first select their decision-makers typefied by their bias levels, and then engage in a classic inventory competition game. Our analysis confirms the positive effect of the decision-maker’s bias on a firm’s economic outcome. However, this effect only appears in competitions in which decision biases are exogenously given. When biases are endogenously selected, firms are always (weakly) worse off than if they all had rational decision-makers. Our results suggest that debiasing at the industry level (e.g., adopting advanced inventory planning software) could benefit all players; however, individual firms do not have the incentive to do so in the absence of coordination mechanisms.
Rita de Cássia Ariza da Cruz, Cristina Pereira de Araujo, Luciano Muniz Abreu
With a market value of nearly US$136 billion (Nasdaq, 20242), AirBnb stands as the foremost hospitality platform in the world, with operations spanning across most countries. Introduced in Brazil in 2012, Airbnb is now present in every state of the country, dominant in cities with massive tourist influx, though it faces stiff competition from other smaller platforms. Despite the discernibly increasing impact of AirBnb in different places, only a few studies about Brazil have been carried out. In recognition of this gap, the main objective of this text is to analyze its impacts in the two largest Brazilian metropolises, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, considering its effects on hotel occupancy rates, ADR and RevPAR as well as on real estate market trends. As a theoretical premise, this text considers the relationship between AirBnb, the hotel industry and the real estate market as an expression of neoliberalism in the production of urban spaces in a developing country, based on the construction of a ‘market society’, on the competition between individuals and on their self-entrepreneurship (Andrade; Côrtes; Almeida, 2021). The methodological approach employed for this study comprises literature and documentary research, exploratory (considering the real estate) and comparative data analysis (on AirBnb listings and on hotel occupancy rates, ADR and RevPAR), as well as a cartographic production. The data about AirBnb was obtained from the AirDna Platform including the whole years of 2021, 2022, 2023 and January 2024, and concerning the real estate market in both cities, the main data source was SECOVI, a private entity that represents the economic category of real estate purchase, sale, rental and management companies. The results show that, given the significant geographical differences between the cities analyzed, AirBnb has produced a specific topology in each of them. Furthermore, although no evidence was found that this platform has had a significant impact on hotel occupancy rates, ADR and RevPAR in these cities in recent years, the competition between AirBnb and hotel industry is considered unfair. Finally, there are signs of an impact on the real estate market typologies in both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where there has been an increase in real estate launches explicitly aimed at seasonal rentals.
We consider a general class of price‐based network revenue management problems that a firm aims to maximize revenue from multiple products produced with multiple types of resources endowed with limited inventory over a finite selling season. A salient feature of our problem is that the firm does not know the underlying demand function that maps prices to demand rate, which must be learned from sales data. It is well known that for almost all classes of demand functions, such as linear, exponential, multinomial logit, and nested logit models, the revenue rate function is not concave in the products' prices but is concave in products' market shares (or price‐controlled demand rates). This creates challenges in adopting any stochastic gradient descent based methods in the price space. We propose a novel nonparametric learning algorithm termed the online inverse batch gradient descent (IGD) algorithm. This algorithm proceeds in batches. In each batch, the firm implements each product's perturbed prices and then uses the sales information to estimate the market shares. Leveraging these estimates, the firm carries out a stochastic gradient descent step in the market share space that takes into account the relative inventory scarcity for the entire horizon and then inversely maps the updated market shares back to the price space to obtain the prices for the next batch. Moreover, we also propose an inventory‐adjusted algorithm (IGD‐I) that the feasible market share set is dynamically adjusted to capture the real‐time relative inventory scarcity for the remaining season. For the large‐scale systems wherein all resources' inventories and the length of the horizon are proportionally scaled by a parameter k , we establish a dimension‐independent regret bound of O ( k 4 / 5 log k ) $O(k^{4/5} \log k)$ . This result is independent of the number of products and resources and works for a continuum action‐set prices and the demand functions that are only once differentiable . Our theoretical result guarantees the efficacy of both algorithms in the high‐dimensional systems where the number of products or resources is large and the prices are continuous. Our algorithms also numerically outperform the existing algorithms in the literature.
Subiyakto A’ang, Nurrachman Gifari Reihan, Nuryasin Nuryasin
et al.
One of the most popular technologies is the internet of things (IoT). It refers to the number of users and penetration in the industry (I-IoT) and consumer (C-IoT) sectors. The previous stud-ies indicated that the usage rate of the C-IoT is outperforming the I-IoT worldwide. However, the contrary indication occurred in Indonesia. Among developing countries, the spending level of IoT in Indonesia is significant, but the use level of the technology is less developed. This survey study purposed to predict what factors influence the behavior intention to use C-IoT. The researchers extended the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model by adopting the network externality aspects. Around 400 valid data were collected from urban communities in the six most populous provinces in the country. The scholars used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method using SmartPLS 3.3 in the data analysis stage. The findings expressed that the number of users and social influence factors are not influential factors influencing behavior intention to use IoT. Besides that, the UTAUT model extension may also be one of the theoretical references for future similar studies. Practically, the findings may also be one of the considerations for the stakeholders of C-IoT implementation in Indonesia.
Purpose – The study has a twofold purpose. The first purpose is to understand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on women's work–home integration and stress from both a constructivist and positivist perspective. The other purpose is to emphasize the need for enterprises to understand the embedded considerations of occupational stress of women for strategy formulation. Design/methodology/approach – The study has used a convergent parallel design to obtain data. A total of 63 respondents (a survey with a sample of 53 and ten narratives) was identified using the snowball technique. The respondents were married and working professionals from Kerala. Perceived stress scale was used to procure data on their stress in the home-based work during the pandemic lockdown. Simultaneously narratives were taken from ten respondents from the same pool. The data were analyzed using R software version 4.0.2. Findings – The findings reflect that home-based work was stressful for women, and they weighed home tasks over work needs. There was no age difference in perceived stress, while it significantly differed by profession and designation they hold. Also, a mother felt more stressed than a non-mother. Quantitative data heavily backed up the narratives. Of the sample, 76% experienced higher stress levels. Practical implications – This research will help users understand the stress distribution in women workers and how various sample characteristics influence stress. The enterprise could use this study to introduce a gender touch to their strategy. The study also adds value to the existing literature on home-based work during the pandemic. Originality/value – The study systematically measures the stress felt by women during home-based work using a perceived stress scale. The mixed approach to the study helps to gain a deep understanding of the topic. This study is an original contribution by the authors to the collection of home-based work and stress literature.
Business, Production management. Operations management
One effective means to hedge against uncertainty and better match supply with demand in a swiftly changing environment is to adopt a flexible operations strategy that allows timely response to realized demand. The notion of flexible processes and operations has led to significant impact on the performance of many manufacturing and service applications. However, investing a fully flexible system is usually prohibitively expensive with overwhelming implementation complexity and overhead. As a result, the search for efficient system designs with only a limited amount of flexibility but can capture the majority of the benefits achieved by a fully flexible system has been an active research question in the operations literature. Fortunately, it has been widely observed that even just a small amount of flexibility, if configured in a right way, can be extremely effective in hedging against demand uncertainty and mitigating supply–demand mismatch. In this review, we shall present and discuss some recent developments in flexible operations over the past decade. We organize our review into models with independent and dependent capacity allocation decisions across time periods. In the former setting, capacity allocation decisions in one period do not affect future demand fulfillment decisions and one can start over every period as if one is dealing with a single‐period model, whereas in the latter case capacity allocation decisions in one period would have an impact on the decisions in future periods. The review concludes with some discussions about topics for future research exploration.
We seek to conceptualize social responsibility for operations management (OM) research to develop a social responsibility lens through which to view operations. To do so, we first consider the corporate social responsibility, sustainability, as well as the bottom‐of‐the‐pyramid and shared value approaches and identify three challenges to developing such a lens: selecting the level of analysis, tackling the huge multitude of objectives, and developing theoretical underpinnings. We then propose a “stakeholder resource‐based view” (SRBV) building on resource‐based view, stakeholder theory, and utility theory to address these challenges. Under SRBV, all stakeholders are treated on a par with each other. These different stakeholders are all presumed to seek maximizing their respective (expected) utility, with different drivers shaping their preferences and do so they use their respective resources, routines and dynamic capabilities. SRBV provides (a) a descriptive framework for qualitative research, (b) an instrumental framework for empirical research, and (c) a normative framework for analytical research. It enables tackling many opportunities for OM research to do with social responsibility and we outline some of these in each of the three types of research methodologies.
Hazards identification is essential step in framework of occupational health & safety (OH&S) management system. The task of spruce wood sanding with hand-held power belt sander is considered as a significant resource of exposure to wood dust. Dust from spruce wood is hazard that can cause negative health effects such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. A dust collection box is a commonly used technical measure for reducing exposure to wood dust for this task in practice. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of commercially available dust collection box at reducing exposure to wood dust during the task of sanding spruce wood using hand-held power belt sander. Laboratory experiment involved sanding spruce planks (250 mm × 50 mm × 500 mm) in longitudinal direction using belt sander (Bosch, PBS 75 A) with 120 grit sanding belt. Spruce dust mass concentrations were sampled using an aerosol monitor (TSI Inc., DustTrak DRX 8533) in the breathing zone of operator. Inhalable and respirable dust concentrations were both significantly lower (P < 0.0001) when dust box was attached to belt sander compared with sander without a dust box. Results from this pilot study indicate that dust collection box is efficient technical measure for decreasing exposure to aerosol mass concentration during sanding spruce wood with hand-held belt sander.
Social responsibility is seen as an institutional innovation, which leads to a chance of social rules. Social responsibility also stimulates other types of innovation, which could work as feedback to keep or as a strategic change of social responsibility. The strategy for improvement of quality creates opportunities to identify and to learn from those who are farther along the road to exceptionality and have improved quality or their products and services by improving their organization. The initiative to improve quality of products and services by improving the organization has to be based on clearly defined principles that help define key functions that support organization’s activities, required resources and serve as supporting tools to improve quality. For an organization to have long term and continuous success it needs to fulfill expectations of all stakeholders and as part of this we can discuss Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR. This includes behaviour of organizations that goes beyond the prescribed legislative requirements, but includes activities that benefit not only the organization itself, but also its employees and the public.
Ostasz Grzegorz, Czerwińska Karolina, Pacana Andrzej
The publication analyses the way of managing and improving the quality of the production process of aluminum pistons for internal combustion engines. The aim of the article is to propose a method of analysis of the effectiveness of individual control methods used in the process of controlling the aluminium piston. Thanks to the location of a control point with the highest share of product non-compliance detection in the production process, it is possible to reduce quality control points by less effective points, which will contribute to lower costs or shorten the time of production processes. In view of the increasing demands on the efficiency of the checkpoints for components in internal combustion engines, the issue is important and topical.
Milind Dawande, Ganesh Janakiraman, Anyan Qi
et al.
Motivated by the ever‐growing complexity of projects and the consistent trend of outsourcing of individual tasks or components, we study the contract‐design problem faced by a firm (or organization) for executing a project consisting of multiple tasks, each of which is performed by an individual contractor whose efforts (work‐rates) are not observable. While the contractors incur costs continuously during the course of their tasks, the firm realizes its reward or revenue only when the entire project is (i.e., all tasks are) completed. The firm’s contract‐design decisions and the contractors’ effort‐level decisions are all governed by the goals of maximizing the respective party’s expected discounted profit. We adopt the framework in Kwon et al. (2010a) and Chen et al. (2015), and derive optimal contracts for both parallel projects (tasks can be performed in parallel) and sequential projects (tasks have to be performed sequentially). The simplicity of the contracts we obtain suggests that there is potential for designing profit‐maximizing contracts without paying a price in terms of contract complexity.
Herke Francien Vernando Memah, Michel Jacson Nalawo Potolau
This study aims to assess the performance of cooperatives and provide strategic recommendations that can help the Local Cooperative in carrying out its vision and mission. This study uses a descriptive research design. The results of the research work of KUD Karya Maesaan, Financial Perspective: Return on Investment (ROI) in 2014 is 1.31%, 2015: 0.86%, 2016: 2.15%. Return on Equity (ROE) in 2014 is 1.51%, 2015: 0.90%, 2016: 2.23%. Net Profit Margin in 2014 is 0.056, 2015: 0.137, 2016: 0.322. Cost Efficiency in 2016 is 97.09%, 2017: 95.57%. KSU Usaha Bersama: ROI in 2014 23.6%, 2015: 22.11%, 2016: 19.29%. ROE in 2014 was 36.77%, in 2015: 33.10%, in 2016: 31.45%. Net Profit Margin in 2014: 0.128, 2015: 0.148, 2016: 0.151. Cost Efficiency in 2016 is 98.62%, 2017: 96.75%. Customer Perspective: For the past 3 years, the number of customers of KUD Karya Maesaan and KSU Usaha Bersama always increases. The level of satisfaction of the customers for both cooperatives are in the level of very satisfied. Internal process perspectives: the processing time and delivery time for both cooperatives are running efficiently. In human resources perspective, both of the cooperative needs to increase the education level for their members and administrator.
Production management. Operations management, Management. Industrial management
Behavioral Operations Management explicitly considers the effects of human behavior in process performance, influenced by cognitive biases, social preferences, and cultural norms. This broadening of Operations is even more critical in the context of the Management of Technology (MOT) than in the operations of established ongoing processes, because in innovation, people do not know well which tasks they will have to perform, they are exposed to risks, and they are subject to emergent interdependencies, all of which push psychological biases and social preferences to the fore. This article gives an overview of important behavioral challenges in MOT, setting them in the context of the phases of the stage gate process on the one hand, and the three levels of individual biases, group member interactions, and large group interactions (e.g., culture) on the other hand. The review suggests that previous work has not addressed a number of important questions in empirical effects and theoretical underpinnings, gaps that are very important for the performance of organizations in practice. The article concludes by offering opportunities for high‐impact future work.
The article deals with the experimental detection of the tribotechnical parameters for two different types of sliding bearings which are intended for operation without an additional lubrication due to the increasing requirements in ecology and environment. The dominant tribotechnical parameters of the self-lubricating bearing are the coefficient of friction and temperature. To determine these parameters, an experimental method was applied in this paper. The introductory part deals with materials of self-lubricating sliding bearings, their properties and usage. The experimental part consists of the evaluation of friction characteristics and geometric change of a surface after sliding pairs were being worn. Experimental examined sliding pairs comprise a sliding bearing and the shaft. The aim of this research was to determine the effect of radial force on tribotechnical parameters in order to predict the behavior of examined sliding bearings in real operating conditions.
Mills Robert W, Mountford David J, Coleman Jonathon P.
et al.
The anti-neutrino source properties of a fission reactor are governed by the production and beta decay of the radionuclides present and the summation of their individual anti-neutrino spectra. The fission product radionuclide production changes during reactor operation and different fissioning species give rise to different product distributions. It is thus possible to determine some details of reactor operation, such as power, from the anti-neutrino emission to confirm safeguards records. Also according to some published calculations, it may be feasible to observe different anti-neutrino spectra depending on the fissile contents of the reactor fuel and thus determine the reactor's fissile material inventory during operation which could considerable improve safeguards. In mid-2014 the University of Liverpool deployed a prototype anti-neutrino detector at the Wylfa R1 station in Anglesey, United Kingdom based upon plastic scintillator technology developed for the T2K project. The deployment was used to develop the detector electronics and software until the reactor was finally shutdown in December 2015. To support the development of this detector technology for reactor monitoring and to understand its capabilities, the National Nuclear Laboratory modelled this graphite moderated and natural uranium fuelled reactor with existing codes used to support Magnox reactor operations and waste management. The 3D multi-physics code PANTHER was used to determine the individual powers of each fuel element (8×6152) during the year and a half period of monitoring based upon reactor records. The WIMS/TRAIL/FISPIN code route was then used to determine the radionuclide inventory of each nuclide on a daily basis in each element. These nuclide inventories were then used with the BTSPEC code to determine the anti-neutrino spectra and source strength using JEFF-3.1.1 data. Finally the anti-neutrino source from the reactor for each day during the year and a half of monitored reactor operation was calculated. The results of the preliminary calculations are shown and limitations in the methods and data discussed.
Large‐scale, web‐based service marketplaces have recently emerged as a new resource for customers who need quick resolutions for their short‐term problems. Due to the temporary nature of the relations between customers and service providers (agents) in these marketplaces, customers may not have an opportunity to assess the ability of an agent before their service completion. On the other hand, the moderating firm has a more sustained relationship with agents, and thus it can provide customers with more information about the abilities of agents through skill screening mechanisms. In this study, we consider a marketplace where the moderating firm can run two skills tests on agents to assess if their skills are above certain thresholds. Our main objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of skill screening as a revenue maximization tool. We, specifically, analyze how much benefit the firm obtains after each additional skill test. We find that skill screening leads to negligible revenue improvements in marketplaces where agent skills are highly compatible and the average service times are similar for all customers. As the compatibility of agent skills weakens or the customers start to vary in their processing time needs, we show that the firm starts to experience sizable improvements in revenue from skill screening. Apparently, the firm can reap the most of these substantial benefits when it runs only one test. For instance, in marketplaces where agents posses uncorrelated skills, the second skill test only brings an additional 2% improvement in revenue. Accounting for possible skill screening costs, we then show the optimality of offering only one test when the compatibility between agent skills is sufficiently low. The results of this study also have important implications in terms of the right level of intervention in the marketplaces we study.