The Role of the Mangement Sciences in Research on Personalization

We present a review of research studies that deal with personalization. We synthesize current knowledge about these areas, and identify issues that we envision will be of interest to researchers working in the management sciences. We take an interdisciplinary approach that spans the areas of economics, marketing, information technology, and operations. We present an overarching framework for personalization that allows us to identify key players in the personalization process, as well as, the key stages of personalization. The framework enables us to examine the strategic role of personalization in the interactions between a firm and other key players in the firm's value system. We review extant literature in the strategic behavior of firms, and discuss opportunities for analytical and empirical research in this regard. Next, we examine how a firm can learn a customer's preferences, which is one of the key components of the personalization process. We use a utility-based approach to formalize such preference functions, and to understand how these preference functions could be learnt based on a customer's interactions with a firm. We identify well-established techniques in management sciences that can be gainfully employed in future research on personalization.CRM, Persoanlization, Marketing, e-commerce,

Determination of structural elements of synthesized silver nano-hexagon from X-ray diffraction analysis

Silver nano-hexagons (AgNHs) have been prepared by a chemical reduction method using poly-vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as a stabilizing agent. The XRD results exhibit the crystalline nature of the prepared sample, with a face centred cubic (fcc) phase. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) results reveal that the silver nanoparticles are nearly hexagon in shape with an average size of 50 nm. Here, crystallite size has been calculated using Williamson-Hall (W-H) method, which is nearly matching with average size obtained from TEM analysis. Again, using W-H method, micro strain has been calculated, which is produced in the nano-hexagon due to dislocation of silver atoms. Further, the lattice constant of the nano-hexagons has also been estimated from the Nelson–Riley plot. Moreover, the appropriate structural parameters such as Lorentz factor, Lorentz polarization factor, dislocation density, number of atoms in a unit cell and morphological index have also been studied from the X-ray diffraction profile

Free Software Offer and Software Diffusion: The Monopolist Case

An interesting phenomenon often observed is the availability of free software. The benefits resulting from network externality have been discussed in the related literature. However, the effect of a free software offer on new software diffusion has not been formally analyzed. We show in this study that even if other benefits do not exist, a software firm can still benefit from giving away fully functional software at the beginning period of the marketing process. This is due to the accelerated diffusion process and subsequently the increased NPV of future cash flows. The analysis is based on the well-known Bass diffusion model

Efficient Supply Chain Contracting with Loss-averse Players in Presence of Multiple Plausible Breaches

The legal literature distinguishes between the liquidated damage and the penalty clauses in contracts, and holds that penalties designed for the prevention of breach are excessive compared to the liquidated damages. In an efficient supply chain contract, the penalty must satisfy the participation and incentive compatibility constraints of the signatories. Considering loss-averse players, we have calculated optimal penalties in a supply chain contract and compared those with the liquidated damages. Two possible breaches are considered – a breach in quality of the delivery and a breach in the process. In the absence of any penalty, a process breach reduces the supplier’s delivery risk and cost of delivery. Determining the parametric conditions for efficient contracts, numerically we show the effects of various variables on the zone of efficient contract. We show that the optimal penalties need not be excessive compared to the liquidated damages