Theses and Dissertations - Department of Information Systems, Statistics & Management Science

Permanent URI for this collection

https://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/114

Browse

Browsing Theses and Dissertations - Department of Information Systems, Statistics & Management Science by Subject "Business"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Coordination of pricing, sourcing and product design decisions in a supply chain
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Liu, Bing; Sox, Charles R.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Supply chain management is more than a movement advocated by a few pioneers today. It is a strategic as well as operational revolution for business operations. Better understanding of the underlying principles of supply chain scenarios helps the widely acceptance that coordination along supply chain links can achieve a win-win situation. In the meanwhile, the penetration of Internet and information technology into every corner of our life enables a large scale of interaction and cooperation between multiple business units and/or end consumers. Supply chain management has gone beyond the early stage when basic cases are discussed for pedagogical purpose. More realistic application scenarios are yet to be identified and investigated. Supply chain performance can be affected by a large set of factors. A variety of supply chain scenarios are in operation. This dissertation is intended to identify a number of typical application scenarios and focus on decision issues integrating pricing, sourcing, product attributes, evolving partnerships between firms. It consists of three manuscripts to be submitted for journal publication. The first paper studies the coordination of pricing and sourcing in two scenarios where multiple suppliers and multiple retail channels are involved. This study investigates the cross price effects between retail channels on the overall profitability. In addition to the analytical analysis, a number of numerical experiments are conducted to investigate realistic issues decision makers may encounter. The second paper studies a supply chain in which a manufacturer sells a configurable product through a retailer. We take the configurable product as a parameterized product and examine the impact of such a feature decision on equilibrium between the manufacturer and the retailer. The analysis considers three different cost functions: (1) linear cost function, (2) quadratic cost function and (3) exponential cost function and examines how the cost functions affect the optimal solutions. The third paper presents a novel framework in which supply chain structure evolves from one stage to the next in terms of changing memberships and business partnerships between members. All of the research work so far on supply chain coordination assumes a static supply chain structure, which remains the same throughout the sequence of events. In reality, however, supply chain memberships and the partnerships between those member firms are not all established at one time and the supply chain structure is subject to evolution. Firms may join or leave a supply chain network and the partnerships between two firms may change as well. Among a large variety of possible evolving scenarios, this research focuses on a case in which a second manufacturer joins a supply chain initially established with one manufacturer and one retailer. The supply chain evolves from the stage with one partnership to the next stage with two partnerships. The two partnerships are established one after another on two competing and differentiated products. Compatibility between demand models in two stages are established. Based on the analytical non-closed form solution, a number of numerical experiments are developed to demonstrate the impact of the introduction of a competing product on the optimal solution of product one. This dissertation conducts a series of exploratory research works on supply chain coordination. It considers coordination not only between multiple players but having multiple strategies involved. It considers products specified with not only price but configurable attributes. It puts forward a novel framework, evolving supply chain, in contrast to static supply chain, the typical research subject in the literature. This dissertation provides a set of insightful results, which help better understand the underlying coordination mechanism and help make wise decisions as needed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Location privacy exchange behavior: development and testing of two proposed models
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Thompson, Samuel Charles; Hale, Joanne E.; Keith, Mark J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Researchers studying the role of privacy perceptions in Location-Based Services (LBS) have primarily focused on information disclosure decisions at the individual transaction level, weighing the benefits of LBS against the risks of a potential privacy breach. In contrast, two of the three essays in this dissertation use a `relationship commitment' conceptualization, with each transaction decision viewed as a component in a long-term process. The `privacy paradox' has been frequently observed, users disclose high levels of personal information in contrast to their low levels of intent to disclose such information. This dissertation includes measures of intent and behavior to determine relevant antecedents of actual location privacy disclosure in the context of LBS on mobile computing devices. In Essay One, qualitative research is used to discover the costs and benefits considered to be important by researchers and LBS users. While there is overlap between the decision considerations of LBS privacy researchers and users, there are also significant differences in the relative priorities each group assigns to these factors. In Essay Two, a behavior prediction model based on privacy calculus, prospect theory and Intertemporal choice theory is proposed and tested. In Essay Three, a behavior prediction model based on social exchange theory and the commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing is proposed and tested. Both of the proposed models were tested in a field experiment using a trial version of a working LBS app with 1047 participants. Both of the research models exhibit significant predictive power, particularly for users' intentions to disclose personal information in exchange for benefits provided by a LBS. The research model in Essay Two explains 39.5 percent of the total variance in mobile users' intention to disclose personal and location information, while the research model in Essay Three explains 54.1 percent. However, the privacy paradox persists as the antecedent variables account for only 9.9 percent of the total variance in actual user information disclosure. Recommendations for researchers, providers of LBS on mobile computing devices, and for LBS users are provided in Chapter Five.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Three inventory models for non-traditional supply chains
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Neve, Benjamin V.; Schmidt, Charles P.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    This work considers three different non-traditional supply chain structures with similar demand and replenishment parameters, and similar solution techniques. In the first article, we develop an inventory model that addresses inventory rationing based on customer priority. We use the framework of a multi-echelon inventory system to describe the physics of a critical level policy. To extend from previous research, we allow multiple demand classes while minimizing a cost objective. We assume a continuous-review, base stock replenishment policy and allow for full backordering. Simulation is used to estimate total expected cost, applying variance reduction to reduce sampling error. First differences are estimated using a Perturbation Analysis unique to inventory rationing literature, heuristics are used to minimize costs. In the second article, we consider a stockless hospital supply chain with inaccurate inventory records. The model presented here is conditional on the level of accuracy in a particular hospital department, or point-of-use (POU). Similar to previous research on inventory inaccuracy, we consider both actual net inventory and recorded inventory in deriving the performance measures. The resultant model is a periodic-review, cost minimization inventory model with full backordering that is centered at the POU. Similar to the previous article, we assume a base stock ordering policy, but in addition to choosing the optimal order-up-to level, we seek the optimal frequency of inventory counts to reconcile inaccurate records. We present both a service level model and a shortage cost model under this framework. In the final article, we consider a hybrid hospital supply chain with both regular and emergency ordering when inventory records are inaccurate. The resultant model is an extension from the previous article where there are opportunities for both regular replenishments and emergency replenishments. We seek an optimal solution to an approximate cost model, and then we compare the results to a simulation-optimization approach.