Managing customer relationships through price and service quality

This paper examines the ways in which a service provider's policies on pricing and service level affect the size of its customer base and profitability. The analysis begins with the development of a customer behavior model that uses customer satisfaction and depth of relationship as mediators of the impact of price and service level on profitability. Based on this model of customer behavior, the system is analyzed as a queuing network from which the properties of the aggregate population's behavior are derived. The analysis reveals the counterintuitive result that a policy that involves a decrease in prices or an increase in service level may lead to a smaller customer base. However, this policy may also lead to higher profits. The novelty of this result lies in the explanation of the phenomenon: that when the customer base decreases due to a change in prices or service quality, companies may experience gains in profit that result not from a decrease in costs associated with serving fewer customers but from an increase in revenues resulting from the indirect effects of the lower prices or higher level of service on customer behavior. The application of optimization techniques to the model developed in this paper yields optimality conditions through which managers can assess the long-term profitability of their pricing and service-level policies.Customer relationship management; operations/marketing interface; two-part tariffs; service operations management; service quality;

Portuguese Crown and the Mediterranean (1453-1535)

UID/HIS/04666/2019During the 15th century the Portuguese started the exploration of the Atlantic Ocean opening the Age of Discoveries. They colonized the archipelagos, they opened trading routes with different points of the western coast of Africa and they looked for new intercontinental routes. However, at the same time Portugal kept its lasting connection with the Mediterranean, and king Manuel I (r. 1495-1521) wished to lead a Crusade against Jerusalem. In my paper I shall examine the consecutive fleets that Portugal sent to Mediterranean to fight the muslims from the middle of the 15th century to the middle of the 16th, and its articulation with the building of an overseas empire that toom place at the same time.publishersversionpublishe

On the kernel estimation of a multivariate distribution function under positive dependence

In this paper, we consider the kernel estimator of the p-dimensional marginal distribution function of a stationary, positively associated sequence of random variables. For this setting, we state results concerning the asymptotic behaviour of this estimator extending some characterizations available in the literature. In addition, we present a simulation study about the empirical process constructed from such a estimator illustrating its asymptotic normality.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologi

On the multivariate kernel distribution estimator for distribution functions under association

In this note we consider the estimation of the multivariate distribution function Fp of the p-dimensional marginal of a stationary associated sequence. We show, under certain regularity conditions, the almost sure consistency and characterize the asymptotic behavior of the MSE. We also characterize the asymptotic optimal bandwidth. Under some stronger assumptions on the covariance this bandwidth rate is shown to be the same as for the independent case.Centro de Matemática da Universidade do Minho (CMAT).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação (POCI) - 2010

C−\mathcal {C}-IBI: Targeting cumulative coordination within an iterative protocol to derive coarse-grained models of (multi-component) complex fluids

We present a coarse-graining strategy that we test for aqueous mixtures. The method uses pair-wise cumulative coordination as a target function within an iterative Boltzmann inversion (IBI) like protocol. We name this method coordination iterative Boltzmann inversion ($\mathcal {C}-$IBI). While the underlying coarse-grained model is still structure based and, thus, preserves pair-wise solution structure, our method also reproduces solvation thermodynamics of binary and/or ternary mixtures. Additionally, we observe much faster convergence within $\mathcal {C}-$IBI compared to IBI. To validate the robustness, we apply $\mathcal {C}-$IBI to study test cases of solvation thermodynamics of aqueous urea and a triglycine solvation in aqueous urea

Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese Studies (2009) Vol. 18-19

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese Studies (2010) Vol. 20

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

From the Solitude of the Metropole to a Horizon of Possibilities

UIDB/04666/2020 UIDP/04666/2020 BPD/107783/2015The purpose of this book is to study the relation between Portuguese colonial art, especially painting, and political power in the contemporary context. The subtlety of suggestions and the complexity of relations that stem from the power of art and the art of power mean that the history of colonial art’s journey is not a univocal narrative but a series of heterogeneous and inter-relational products that emerged in multifarious ways from the metropole and also the overseas possessions. Hence Pintura Colonial Contemporânea [Contemporary Colonial Painting] sets out Da Solidão da Metrópole a um Horizonte de Possibilidades [From the Solitude of the Metropole to a Horizon of Possibilities] in the context of the colonial coming-and-going within a hybrid genealogy formed and developed in antonymic mirrors in which art and travel each needed the other in order to define themselves.publishersversionpublishe

6174: um problema com números de quatro algarismos

Aborda-se um problema clássico da chamada matemática recreativa. Uma operação definida para números com quatro algarismos, com pelo menos um distinto dos outros, é tal que, quando iterada, converge rapidamente para o número mágico 6174. Apresentamos uma descrição completa do número de iterações necessárias para se chegar ao 6174 e calcula-se o número esperado de iterações quando escolhemos arbitrariamente o número inicial. Referem-se algumas extensões deste problema clássic