Study on the performance of palm methyl ester in a combustion system

Nowadays, the world is adversely affected by the rapid growth of various industries which use fossil diesel fuel as a main source to power their respective industries. As such, this phenomenon has contributed to environmental pollution apart from these natural resources are increasingly reduced thus resulting in price increments. However, biodiesel fuel has recognized by many researcher as a potential replacement of fossil fuel. A study was conducted to investigate the performance of alternative energy sources that are environmentally friendly and renewable such as palm biodiesel. Therefore, this project presents an investigation on the combustion performance of Palm Methyl Ester (PME) which also known as Palm Biodiesel in an oil burner system. Several Carotino’s palm biodiesel blends (B10, B20, and B40) also have been made by blended with Conventional Diesel Fuel (CDF). Examination of the fuel properties for each blends including CDF and PME have been carried out. The performance of the fuels have been studied based on its wall temperature profile and gas emissions generated such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO). The test fuels have been burned in the oil burner combustion chamber at different equivalent ratios and using three different oil burner nozzles (1.25, 1.50 and 1.75 USgal/h). From the test, PME is the lowest emission production compared to CDF but generate a low temperature. For example, at stoichiometric mixture with nozzle 1.25 USgal/h, NOx and CO generated by PME decreased of 27% and 30% respectively compared to CDF. PME has recorded about 12% drop in an average temperature compared to the CDF at the same condition. The higher fuel flow rate used, results more heat and emission generated. The results indicated may be benefits to using biodiesel in industrial processes due to less pollution production

Software dynamic pricing by an optimization deterministic model with presence of piracy

This project presents an optimization model for pricing a monopolistic software application with presence of piracy. The purpose is raising revenue produced by product’s sale with adjusting prices in a price skimming strategy and minimizing amount of piracy. The model is a multifunctional price skimming optimization with simplex method which accompanied by deterministic and stochastic methods for calculating time intervals of each segment. Linear functions are used to describing demand of each segment. In addition a linear piracy function is proposed to making piracy a dynamic parameter. The model has the ability to apply penetration pricing and controlling market share. Windows 7 is chosen for case study. Optimizing case of Windows 7 is resulted in 8.2 percentage increase in revenue, while value of net market share is virtually constant. Therefore the developed model demonstrates its competence in optimizing revenue by modifying prices with presence of piracy. Results show that to face with piracy, range of price skimming must decreased in a way that highest price need to be intensely decreased and also lowest one must be slightly decreased. By using this strategy lowest loss in revenue due to piracy can be recurred. Effects of an escalation in piracy on proposed optimization model are: increase in number of sale, demand, selling portion, market share but decrease in price, price difference between segments, and revenue. Time intervals between successive prices, which are obtained for Windows 7, is obtained by deterministic and stochastic technics which are shown to be nearly equal due to large number of customers

Pricing of Content Services – An Empirical Investigation of Music as a Service

In the last years new concepts of digital music distribution have been developed. One of them is Music as a Service, which provides music streaming over the internet as a service - without transferring ownership for the content. This differentiates Music as a Service from Download to Own, which is used by music download platforms predominantly and is the most widely studied concept in academic research. The aim of this paper is to receive first research implications about customers’ attitudes towards MaaS. Based on an empirical survey of 132 Music as a Service users, this research explores the effects of product configurations on consumers’ utility and their willingness to pay (WTP) for premium offers. We can show that next to price, contract duration and music quality as the most important product attributes, there is a high WTP for overcoming insufficient mobile internet coverage

Optimal Bundling and Pricing of Multi-Service Bundles from a Value-based Perspective A Software-as-a-Service case

Software vendors are increasingly adopting Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) pricing model, whereby software is offered as a web-based service in exchange for a subscription fee. In addition, software vendors become increasingly interested in using bundling of services to maximize their market penetration, revenue and, or profits. The objective of this paper is aimed at presenting and demonstrating a method that can be used to estimate consumer-level reservation prices for a set of SaaS offerings, to show how the method can be used to categorize different services based on the heterogeneity of reservation prices, and thirdly, to determine the optimality of different bundling strategies. A conjoint analysis study is used to determine the reservation prices of the services and to assess what price-bundle combinations are most attractive. Next a simulation model is used to show that the optimality of different bundling strategies. The results underline the importance of a value-based perspective on SaaS pricing models in pursuing different objectives of software vendors. To achieve profit maximization, software vendors should consider mixed price-bundling strategies in which bundles are offered at a discount. In case SaaS offerings complement a core service as well as entail high contribution margins (i.e. the services are reinforcing) a pure price-bundling strategy may be considered to target highly profitable customers. To achieve revenue maximization, mixed price-bundling should be considered for SaaS offerings with competing characteristics. In case the SaaS offerings are reinforcing, an unbundled strategy should be considered

Right Scaling for Right Pricing: A Case Study on Total Cost of Ownership Measurement for Cloud Migration

Cloud computing promises traditional enterprises and independent software vendors a myriad of advantages over on-premise installations including cost, operational and organizational efficiencies. The decision to migrate software configured for on-premise delivery to the cloud requires careful technical consideration and planning. In this chapter, we discuss the impact of right-scaling on the cost modelling for migration decision making and price setting of software for commercial resale. An integrated process is presented for measuring total cost of ownership, taking in to account IaaS/PaaS resource consumption based on forecast SaaS usage levels. The process is illustrated with a real world case study

Pricing of digital goods and services

An appropriate pricing strategy is inevitable in achieving competitive advantage; however, firms have to be aware of the key resources needed for successful pricing and invest in developing the firm’s pricing ability. Pricing of digital goods and services is especially challenging due to the high-volatility environments and the special characteristics that these offerings have as compared to other economic goods. Despite of its importance, the literature, to date, did not investigate the pricing of digital goods and services from the resource-based perspective (RBW) and the capability-based view (CBV). After conducting a multi-case study of five firms, this research provides an in-depth view on the pricing practices of digital goods and services through the theoretical lenses of RBV and CBV and proposes a model that captures the key activities and the key resources needed for pricing of digital goods and services

Extending the Expectation-Confirmation Theory: How do Software Updates Change Continuance Intention?

Software updates have enabled developers the possibilities to fix bugs or add features after the initial software release. The phenomenon of using such updates to enhance software, is a relatively new trend that has not received much attention in the Information Systems (IS) literature. However, because software updates influence the interaction between users and developers, they are directly connected to sales and revenue. Based on a conducted literature review, this research idea consists of two parts and proposes an approach to measure and analysis the effects of software updates on users. First, a longitudinal, panel study is conducted to gain qualitative knowledge and extend the expectation-confirmation framework proposed by the existing literature. Second, a self-developed Android app will be used in an experimental setting to test and validate the research model and gain knowledge on how developers can keep users happy and increase continuance intention through functional software updates

Pricing of Digital Innovations as an Entrepreneurial Process

How do entrepreneurs set a price for digital innovations they develop and market? This is an important question in current information society where digitalization is making established pricing models outdated. In this study, we focus on this issue by examining what kinds of activities and resources entrepreneurs possess when pricing digital innovations. Based on five case studies, including 37 interviews with key decision makers involved in the pricing process, we found that pricing of digital innovations can be conceptualized as an entrepreneurial process in which the pricing capabilities are developed based on the resources at hand. In this view, the pricing model is adjusted through negotiations with customers as an iterative process. Our findings contribute to the IS literature by integrating insights from RBV, DRBV, and entrepreneurship theories to the pricing process of digital innovations

The Impact of Digitization on Information Goods Pricing Strategy

The widespread adoption of the Internet and digital technologies has transformed the distribution and consumption of information goods. We develop a parsimonious model to study pricing strategies of a publisher who offers information good in dual medium (physical, digital) as well as in bundled medium. Consumers are heterogeneous in both valuation for content and preference for medium. We show that offering digital medium only (single component) is optimal under some market conditions, while offering bundle of mediums and digital medium only (partial mixed bundling) is optimal under other market conditions. We find that offering information good in physical medium and in digital medium (pure component) is not optimal when the two mediums are partial substitutes. Moreover, offering only bundle of mediums (pure bundling) is not optimal when physical medium has non-negligible marginal cost. Interestingly, it is always profit enhancing to offer digital medium, even if most consumers prefer physical medium

Hydrolink 2020/4. Artificial intelligent

Topic: Artificial Intelligenc