Preis- und Kapazitätsplanung mit Hilfe kostenorientierter Entscheidungsregeln

Jahnke H, Chwolka A. Preis- und Kapazitätsplanung mit Hilfe kostenorientierter Entscheidungsregeln. Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung und Praxis . 1999;51:3-17

Coordinating service-sensitive demand and capacity by adaptive decision making: An application of case-based decision theory

Jahnke H, Chwolka A, Simons D. Coordinating service-sensitive demand and capacity by adaptive decision making: An application of case-based decision theory. DECISION SCIENCES. 2005;36(1):1-32.The subject of this article is the simultaneous choice of product price and manufacturing capacity if demand is stochastic and service-level sensitive. In this setting, capacity as well as price have an impact on demand because several aspects of service level depend on capacity. For example, delivery time will be reduced if capacity is increased given a constant demand rate. We illustrate the relationship between service level, capacity, and demand reaction by a stylized application problem from the after-sales services industry. The reaction of customers to variations in service level and price is represented by a kinked price-demand-rate function. We first derive the optimal price-capacity combination for the resulting decision problem under full information. Subsequently, we focus on a decision maker (DM) who lacks complete knowledge of the demand function. Hence the DM is unable to anticipate the service level and consequently cannot identify the optimal solution. However, the DM will acquire additional information during the sales process and use it in subsequent revisions of the price-capacity decision. Thus, this decision making is adaptive and based on experience. In contrast to the literature, which assumes certain repetitive procedures somewhat ad hoc, we develop an adaptive decision process based on case-based decision theory (CBDT) for the price-capacity problem. Finally, we show that a CBDT DM in our setting eventually finds the optimal solution, if the DM sets the price based on absorption costs and adequately adjusts the capacity with respect to the observed demand

Delegation of planning activities and the assignment of decision rights

Often the preparation of a decision and the authority to decide are separated. For example, a controller must supply a manager with relevant information, but abstain from making the decision. With the help of principal-agent models I show that a separation of these tasks is efficient in special cases. If the principal delegates only the planning activities, he can directly control the decision and thereby also reduce the agent's flexibility in the planning activities. The disadvantage is that costs arise because information must be transmitted. In addition, there may be bonding costs due to the principal's limited ability to commit costlessly to a decision. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RN 9560(391) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

LightCDD: a lightweight capability-driven development method for start-ups

Novice innovators and entrepreneurs face the risk of designing naive business models. In fact, lack of realism and failing to envision contextual constraints is one of the main threats to start-up success. Both the literature and the responses we gathered from experts in incubation confirm this problem. Capability Driven Development (CDD) is an integrated approach consisting of a method, tools, and best practices. It has proved to be successful when applied to mature enterprises that intend to become context-aware and adaptive. In this paper we report on the application of CDD to two start-up projects and how, despite being useful in making the entrepreneurs aware of dynamic business environments and constraints, a trade-off analysis showed that a simpler version of the method was necessary. Therefore, we present LightCDD, a context-aware enterprise modelling method that is tailored for business model generation. It reduces the set of modelling constructs and guidelines to facilitate its adoption by entrepreneurs, yet keeping it expressive enough for their purposes and, at the same time, compatible with CDD methodology. We also discuss what implications this simplification has with regard to the CDD tool environment

Negotiating Transfer Prices

Haake C-J, Martini JT. Negotiating Transfer Prices. Group Decision and Negotiation. 2013;22(4):657-680.We consider a team-investment setting in which transfer prices between two divisions are negotiable. Investments are made independently and simultaneously after the bargaining stage, i.e. with a given transfer price 'on the table'. Both divisions' investments jointly affect the sales price of the final product and total revenue. We analyze two transfer-pricing schemes and their corresponding bargaining problems. Both bargaining settings exhibit non-transferable utility because the transfer price not only allocates corporate profit but also affects corporate profit through the incentives it creates for the divisions' investment and quantity decisions. In particular, we discuss how concepts from bargaining theory can be use used to determine a 'fair' agreement concerning the transfer price. VHB-JOURQUAL-Ranking:

The value of negotiating cost-based transfer prices

This paper analyzes the potential of one-step transfer prices based on either variable or full costs for coordinating decentralized production and quality-improving investment decisions. Transfer prices based on variable costs fail to induce investments on the upstream stage. In contrast, transfer prices based on full costs provide strong investment incentives for the upstream divisions. However, they fail to coordinate the investment decisions. We show that negotiations prevent such coordination failure. In particular, we find that the firm benefits from a higher degree of decentralization so that total profit increases in the number of parameters being subject to negotiations

A Competitive Analysis of Chinese Container Ports Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

Over 20% of the world's container traffic occurs from Asian ports. China's entry into the market has significantly stimulated this process. Since China adopted its liberalised economic policy in the 1970s, its economy has grown at an average rate of 10% or more per annum. In particular, the efforts and investments that have been poured into its container ports are conspicuous, since approximately 90% of the country's international trade (in volume terms) is handled through maritime transport. Chinese ports (especially container ports), however, have a number of problems, such as bureaucratic administration, insufficient facilities, the lack of service and commercial orientation and inefficient operations. This paper aims to identify the competitiveness of container ports in China including Hong Kong from the outsiders’ perspective, using the framework of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, and to provide managerial and strategic implications. As expected, the findings reveal that, in terms of competitiveness, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yantian rank first, second and third, respectively. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2004) 6, 34–52. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100096