Curbing the HIV Epidemic by Supporting Effective Engagement in HIV Care: Recommendations for Health Plans and Health Care Purchasers

The United States is poised to dramatically reduce the scope of its HIV epidemic, but this demands increased leadership and attention from health plans and health care purchasers (including Medicaid, Medicare, marketplaces, and other private purchasers). This new amfAR report identifies changes in policy and practice in clinics, communities, and health care programs to reduce unnecessary health spending, increase the effectiveness of services, and increase the integration of services. Done right, the same steps that lead to appropriate management of care by health plans and purchasers also will help to achieve national public health goals

A Decision Model for E-commerce-enabled Partial Market Exit

Struggling retail chains often try to recover profitability by closing some of their stores. The challenge in this strategy lies in determining how many stores to close, as store exit has implications for both the customers and the supply chain. After a store closes, its customers are lost forever to the competition, unless there is a surviving open store nearby or an electronic alternative such as an e-store. From the supply chain perspective, after a store closes, its supporting regional distribution center is left with less business, and thus reduced viability. This paper develops a decision support model to study the profitability of alternative retail network structures by varying the proportion of stores that are closed, the average price sensitivity of demand, the price difference between the online store and the traditional retailers, and customer retention rates

Credit constraints, organizational choice, and returns to capital: Evidence from a rural industrial cluster in China

"Traditional economic theory posits that a well-functioning capital market is a necessary condition for industrialization and economic growth. In reality, micro and small enterprises are ubiquitous because entrepreneurs can undertake low-return activities with minimal barriers to entry. Using a cashmere sweater cluster in China as an example, this paper shows that organizational choice can overcome the prohibitive cost of investment. When facing credit constraints, firms are more likely to concentrate in divisible production technologies in the form of industrial clusters. Within clusters, a vertically-integrated production process can be decomposed into many small incremental stages that are more accessible for the small entrepreneurs widely available in rural China, thereby supporting industrialization even in the absence of a well-functioning capital market. The observed rate of returns to capital is closely related to the organizational choice under credit constraints." from authors' abstractIndustrialization, Entrepreneurship, Credit, Capital markets, organizational choice, Non-farm development,

The role of e-procurement in purchasing management

This exposition summarises research published in several academic articles, in order to meet the requirements of PhD by publication. The focus of the work is on the role of electronic procurement in management of the purchasing function. From the late 1990s a number of independent e-procurement mechanisms were launched which offered potential benefits such as increased order accuracy, transaction efficiency and greater integration between trading partners. At the outset of this programme of research, e-procurement was therefore an emerging phenomenon with little academic research and presented an opportunity to investigate a largely unexplored area. Edmondson and McManus (2007) suggest that for nascent, as opposed to mature areas of research, where few formal constructs or measures exist, an exploratory, qualitative approach is required. This research followed such an approach through the use of case studies, involving observation, participation and interviews with key organisational actors. Each paper makes use of several cases in order to compare and contrast results from different organisations and to draw conclusions from multi-case analysis. The published articles focus on the impact of core applications within e-procurement, including online reverse auctions, electronic marketplaces, online catalogue sites, and buying systems covering the ‘requisition to pay’ cycle. The findings from the papers address a number of core themes in purchasing management. In considering buyer-supplier relationships, it was observed that such dyads are driven by traditional buyer negotiation factors such as segmentation, power and price and that use of eprocurement applications tended to enforce such traditional behaviours. In relation to the potential for integration, the study found that integration between firms was barely affected, as the concept of integration was neither an objective nor a business case driver for e-procurement adoption. This situation reflects the finding that procurement managers pursue functional targets rather than supply chain-level objectives. However, other significant effects from e-procurement adoption were noted such as the tendency by buyers to reduce supplier numbers and a move to re-engineer the procurement function in buying firms, through automating transactional processes. The research finds that e-procurement does not have a deterministic impact on purchasing management, and that it acts as an enabler to more effective management of the function though the way its different mechanisms are deployed. The exposition establishes that e-procurement is used in relation to supply conditions which are characterised by both ‘markets’ and ‘hierarchies’, but that it is the predefined purchasing strategy of the firm, rather than available technology solutions, which determines when markets and hierarchies are used. Additionally, an original model is introduced, focusing on developing an e-procurement policy which can support strategic purchasing goals. This model extrapolates findings from stages in the research, and marries together elements from various papers and frameworks therein, to produce some guidelines for adoption of this technology

A Property Rights Enforcement and Pricing Model for IIoT Data Marketplaces

학위논문(석사)--서울대학교 대학원 :공과대학 협동과정 기술경영·경제·정책전공,2019. 8. Jörn Altmann.The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has become a valuable data source for products and services based on advanced data analytics. However, evidence suggests that industries are suffering a significant loss of value creation from insufficient IIoT data sharing. We argue that the limited utilization of the Sensing as a Service business model is caused by the economic and technological characteristics of sensor data, and the corresponding absence of applicable digital rights management models. Therefore, we propose a combined property rights enforcement and pricing model to solve the IIoT data sharing incentive problem.산업용 사물 인터넷 (IIoT) 데이터가 제품과 서비스를 위한 중요한 고급 데이터 소스로 여겨지고 있지만, 여전히 수 많은 기업들은 불충분한 산업용 사물 인터넷 데이터 공유 시스템으로 인하여 고충을 겪고 있다. 방대한 분량의 산업용 데이터가 제대로 거래되지 못하고 있으며, 이는 데이터의 커다란 가치 손실로 이어지고 있다. 본 연구에서는 서비스로서의 센싱 (Sensing as a Service) 비지니스 모델이 한정적으로 적용되고 있는 원인이 해당 정보의 경제적, 기술적 특징들을 반영하는 디지털 권리 시스템의 부재에 기인한다고 보고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 산업용 사물 인터넷 데이터에 대한 지적재산권 집행 시스템과 데이터 가격산정 모델을 제안하여 산업용 사물 인터넷 데이터 공유 인센티브 문제를 해결하고자 한다.1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Problem Description 6 1.3 Research Objective and Question 8 1.4 Methodology 8 1.5 Contributions 9 1.6 Structure 10 2 Literature Review 11 2.1 Sensing as a Service 11 2.2 Economic Characteristics of IIoT Data 14 2.2.1 Property Rights of Data 18 2.2.2 Licensing of IIoT Data 23 2.3 IIoT Data Marketplaces 25 2.3.1 Use-cases and Value Propositions 30 2.3.2 Market Structures and Pricing Models 34 2.4 Digital Rights Management for IIoT 36 3 Model 44 3.1 Assumptions 45 3.2 Watermarking Technique 47 3.2.1 Function 48 3.2.2 Example 50 3.2.3 Robustness 51 3.3 Economic Reasoning 54 3.3.1 The Quality Gap 55 3.3.2 Cost of Watermarking (CoW) 57 3.3.3 Cost of Attacking (CoA) 58 4 Analytical Analysis 60 4.1 Equilibrium Between CoW and CoA 60 4.2 Determining the Optimal Quality Gap 62 4.3 Applicability of the Quality Gap Function 64 5 Conclusion 66 5.1 Summary 66 5.2 Discussion 66 6 Limitations and Future Research 68 References 70 Abstract (Korean) 79Maste

Automated Auction Mechanism Design with Competing Markets

Resource allocation is a major issue in multiple areas of computer science. Despite the wide range of resource types across these areas, for example real commodities in e-commerce and computing resources in distributed computing, auctions are commonly used in solving the optimization problems involved in these areas, since well designed auctions achieve desirable economic outcomes. Auctions are markets with strict regulations governing the information available to traders in the market and the possible actions they can take. Auction mechanism design aims to manipulate the rules of an auction in order to achieve specific goals. Economists traditionally use mathematical methods, mainly game theory, to analyze auctions and design new auction forms. However, due to the high complexity of auctions, the mathematical models are typically simplified to obtain results, and this makes it difficult to apply results derived from such models to market environments in the real world. As a result, researchers are turning to empirical approaches. Following this line of work, we present what we call a grey-box approach to automated auction mechanism design using reinforcement learning and evolutionary computation methods. We first describe a new strategic game, called \cat, which were designed to run multiple markets that compete to attract traders and make profit. The CAT game enables us to address the imbalance between prior work in this field that studied auctions in an isolated environment and the actual competitive situation that markets face. We then define a novel, parameterized framework for auction mechanisms, and present a classification of auction rules with each as a building block fitting into the framework. Finally we evaluate the viability of building blocks, and acquire auction mechanisms by combining viable blocks through iterations of CAT games. We carried out experiments to examine the effectiveness of the grey-box approach. The best mechanisms we learnt were able to outperform the standard mechanisms against which learning took place and carefully hand-coded mechanisms which won tournaments based on the CAT game. These best mechanisms were also able to outperform mechanisms from the literature even when the evaluation did not take place in the context of CAT games. These results suggest that the grey-box approach can generate robust double auction mechanisms and, as a consequence, is an effective approach to automated mechanism design. The contributions of this work are two-fold. First, the grey-box approach helps to design better auction mechanisms which can play a central role in solutions to resource allocation problems in various application domains of computer science. Second, the parameterized view and the reinforcement learning-based search method can be used in other strategic, competitive situations where decision making processes are complex and difficult to design and evaluate manually

A Free Exchange e-Marketplace for Digital Services

The digital era is witnessing a remarkable evolution of digital services. While the prospects are countless, the e-marketplaces of digital services are encountering inherent game-theoretic and computational challenges that restrict the rational choices of bidders. Our work examines the limited bidding scope and the inefficiencies of present exchange e-marketplaces. To meet challenges, a free exchange e-marketplace is proposed that follows the free market economy. The free exchange model includes a new bidding language and a double auction mechanism. The rule-based bidding language enables the flexible expression of preferences and strategic conduct. The bidding message holds the attribute-valuations and bidding rules of the selected services. The free exchange deliberates on attributes and logical bidding rules for automatic deduction and formation of elicited services and bids that result in a more rapid self-managed multiple exchange trades. The double auction uses forward and reverse generalized second price auctions for the symmetric matching of multiple digital services of identical attributes and different quality levels. The proposed double auction uses tractable heuristics that secure exchange profitability, improve truthful bidding and deliver stable social efficiency. While the strongest properties of symmetric exchanges are unfeasible game-theoretically, the free exchange converges rapidly to the social efficiency, Nash truthful stability, and weak budget balance by multiple quality-levels cross-matching, constant learning and informs at repetitive thick trades. The empirical findings validate the soundness and viability of the free exchange

Identification and realisation of the benefits of participating in an electronic marketplace : An interpretive evaluation approach

Electronic marketplaces have proliferated as use of the Internet has become widespread in business. A rapid growth in the number of marketplaces, followed by a period of stringent consolidation, as market makers develop a greater understanding of effective business models, has resulted in a climate of uncertainty and confusion. As with many aspects of e-commerce the drive towards participation is fuelled less by strategy planning than by a fear of lagging behind competitors or losing first mover advantage. In this climate of uncertainty organisations often bypass effective evaluation of the benefits that can be realised from participation in e-marketplaces, thereby exacerbating the process facing them and hampering effective decision-making. Evaluation is perceived as a fraught subject within the Information System field, and particularly within the business community which adheres to tried and trusted, albeit often inappropriate, methods such as financial or technical evaluation. The difficulties involved in effective evaluation of systems are well documented; these will increase as systems become more pervasive throughout organisations and those of their trading partners. Calls for a more holistic approach to evaluation are increasing, based on a developing appreciation of interpretive methods of research within the Information Systems discipline. However, the understanding that the social, political and cultural factors affecting and organisation have an impact on the uses and advantages of systems is by no means universal, and empirical evidence of this view is only slowly emerging. This research examines the benefits that can be realised from participation in an electronic marketplace by taking an interpretive approach to the evaluation. It examines the nature of electronic marketplaces to provide clarity to a confused and dynamic environment. The study then focuses on the development of evaluation studies within the IS discipline to identify how an effective evaluation method for assessing the benefits of e-marketplace participation can be achieved. An empirical examination of an organisation’s participation in an electronic marketplace is used to identify the benefits that are realisable and the issues that impact on them. The case study is conducted through an interpretive lens, using a content, context, process (CCP) approach based on existing IS literature. This enables a crucial understanding of the internal and external environments influencing the organisation and its realisation of potential benefits. To allow for the range of interpretations and reflections required to fully address the complexity of the issues involved in such a case study, a variety of research influences such as dialect hermeneutics, critical realism and case study theory are drawn into the research model. The case study organisation’s motivation for participating in an e-marketplace was primarily cost savings. Over the two years of the study, several more potential benefits were identified, such as supply chain efficiencies, greater market awareness and a widening of the supplier base. However, the organisation’s commitments to its local and regional communities, its need to retain status and some consideration of existing relationships needed to be balanced against the gains that might be realised. In some cases the organisation chose to forgo a potential benefit in favour of socially or politically motivated actions. Cultural factors also influenced their actions, particularly as they moved towards extending participation in the marketplace to gain from a global sourcing strategy. The contribution of this research lies in two areas. Firstly, it was existing evaluation literature to development a framework for the evaluation of benefits in the complex area of electronic marketplaces, thereby extending and informing the call for more inclusive and interpretive evaluation studies. Secondly, the research contributes empirical evidence to support the recognition of benefits to be gained from electronic marketplaces and shows how the realisation of the economic benefits is impacted by the social, political and cultural factors that influence an organisation