Thesis (M.S. in Management) Naval Postgraduate School, June 1997. / Thesis advisors, Mark W. Stone, Sandra M. Desbrow. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-85). Also available online.

Background: As the link between end customers and suppliers, retailers are directly facing the end customers’ demand and meanwhile affected by suppliers’ performance. The integration and recognition of information exchange between a retailer and its supplier is significant for a retailer to operate its business effectively and efficiently. To achieve an effective and efficient retail supply chain, it is necessary to ivestigate and understand in a retailer-supplier interface, what information is given and required by a retailer, what benefits a retailer can obtain from this information exchange as well as what challenges a retailer may face. Purpose: The purpose is to investigate types of information between a retailer and its supplier, and the included benefits and challenges with the information exchange from the retailer’s perspective. Method: This thesis is a descriptive-exploratory study with an abductive approach and a qualitative method. The theoretical framework was built based on relevant previous research and the empirical data was collected from nine semi-structured interviews. A multiple-holistic case study strategy was applied, in which five retail companies were involved. Both theoretical framework and empirical data are strongly connected to the research purpose and research questions. Conclusion: It is clear that there is a great recognition of information exchange between a retailer and its supplier. By analyzing empirical findings, three summary tables regarding the research questions were developed. Some categories are in line with the theoretical framework, while some others were identified from empirical findings. To sum up, eleven types of information, thirteen categories of benefits, and nine categories of challenges with information exchange have been identified from the retailer’s perspective. Future research: The future research can further: 1. Focus on one specific retail sector; 2. Study offline, online retailers separately; 3. Focus on service retailers; 4. Focus on retailers’ inter-organizational communication; 5. Study from the supplier’s perspective; and 6. Develop solutions dealing with the supply chain, or the inter-organizational complexity.

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With the passing of the MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century) Act in 2012, the United States bridge industry has had a significant push for the use of innovative technologies to advance the highway transportation system. Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM) is emerging as an important trend in the industry, in which various technologies and software are being used in all phases of the bridge lifecycle and have been shown to have a variety of benefits. However, most software are stand alone applications and do not efficiently exchange data among other software. This lack of interoperability creates impediments for the efficient and seamless transfer of information across the bridge lifecycle. In recent years, the building industry developed standards to promote interoperability for Building Information Models (BIM). Unfortunately, these standards lack the ability to incorporate bridges. Therefore, there major need for a standard for Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM). Moreover, as technology and modeling software have been coming more prevalent in other domains (roads, geotechnical, environment systems, etc.) there is an even larger need to expand interoperability standards across multi-disciplinary domains. The purpose of this research is to develop a methodology that would enable the interoperability of multi-disciplinary information models. The scope of the methodology is for Bridge Information Models, but the approach is extendable to other domains. This research is motivated by the fundamental issues of interoperability, such as semantic, logic, and software issues. In this research, the fundamental issues of interoperability are investigated as well as an in-depth review of literature proposing solutions. Additionally, current standards for interoperability of information models are reviewed. Based on the findings of the literature review, this research develops, evaluates, and validates a novel methodology for interoperability of information models. The fundamental issues of interoperability are addressed by the use of a taxonomy and ontology. A new standardization process to capture domain knowledge, called in “Information Exchange Standard” is outlined along with a novel method of developing an ontology based on industry workflows. This methodology has been used and validated by an industry domain case study. A software tool to automate the capturing of domain knowledge and development of a taxonomy is presented.

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p><strong>Title:                           </strong>What is the interaction between information providers and decision makers like? A case study on management accounting in Swedbank.</p><p><strong>Course:                              </strong>Master’s thesis in Business economics, 15 ECTS.</p><p><strong>Date:                                                        </strong>2009-06-01</p><p><strong>Authors:                            </strong>Daoud Ghorbandi and George Tekmen</p><p><strong>Supervisor:                        </strong>Paula Liukkonen</p><p><strong>Language:                         </strong>Swedish</p><p><strong>Purpose:</strong>        The purpose of the paper is to study the relationship between information providers and decision makers regarding the quality of information for economic decision-making in companies.</p><p><strong>Method:                     </strong>The authors use the qualitative method approach. The essay's primary data consists of data collected through interviews, while the literature that the authors have made use of for the interpretation and analysis of the paper form the essay’s secondary data.</p><p><strong>Theory:                      </strong>It includes a main theory and four other theories supporting the paper. The main theory is the agent theory, while theories on information quality, the theory of outsourcing of management accounting, theories of calculation methods and regulations on management accounting is to support the analysis and conclusions made in the paper.</p><p><strong>Empirical base:          </strong>Interview Responses forming the essay’s primary data is presented in its entirety in this chapter.</p><p><strong>Conclusions:</strong>              The authors conclude that there are no major problems or obstacles in terms of internal management accounting in Swedbank, at least not in the departments such as the HR and the GF. The authors note that there are no significant communication problems between information providers and decision makers within Swedbank in particular between the investigated departments. The information that the decision makers are provided with is considered as sufficient to base rational decisions on, although there is a desire for improved information. The authors have concluded that both agents and principals within the investigated departments in Swedbank behave professionally and responsibly. Information security and quality of the information is taken very seriously in Swedbank and there are established procedures and good structure and culture within Swedbank guaranteeing secure information with high quality. The authors also believe that the code of conduct is more regulated by the law, sanctioning punishments, than the American or British counterpart, which reduces the risk of adventure thinking of corporate managers and majority shareholders, not least in terms of Swedbank.</p><p><strong>Key words:  </strong>Internal Accounting, information quality, information exchange.</p>

Abstract Title:                           What is the interaction between information providers and decision makers like? A case study on management accounting in Swedbank. Course:                              Master’s thesis in Business economics, 15 ECTS. Date:                                                        2009-06-01 Authors:                            Daoud Ghorbandi and George Tekmen Supervisor:                        Paula Liukkonen Language:                         Swedish Purpose:        The purpose of the paper is to study the relationship between information providers and decision makers regarding the quality of information for economic decision-making in companies. Method:                     The authors use the qualitative method approach. The essay's primary data consists of data collected through interviews, while the literature that the authors have made use of for the interpretation and analysis of the paper form the essay’s secondary data. Theory:                      It includes a main theory and four other theories supporting the paper. The main theory is the agent theory, while theories on information quality, the theory of outsourcing of management accounting, theories of calculation methods and regulations on management accounting is to support the analysis and conclusions made in the paper. Empirical base:          Interview Responses forming the essay’s primary data is presented in its entirety in this chapter. Conclusions:              The authors conclude that there are no major problems or obstacles in terms of internal management accounting in Swedbank, at least not in the departments such as the HR and the GF. The authors note that there are no significant communication problems between information providers and decision makers within Swedbank in particular between the investigated departments. The information that the decision makers are provided with is considered as sufficient to base rational decisions on, although there is a desire for improved information. The authors have concluded that both agents and principals within the investigated departments in Swedbank behave professionally and responsibly. Information security and quality of the information is taken very seriously in Swedbank and there are established procedures and good structure and culture within Swedbank guaranteeing secure information with high quality. The authors also believe that the code of conduct is more regulated by the law, sanctioning punishments, than the American or British counterpart, which reduces the risk of adventure thinking of corporate managers and majority shareholders, not least in terms of Swedbank. Key words:  Internal Accounting, information quality, information exchange.

In this thesis we study peer-based communities which are online communities whose services are provided by their participant agents. In order to improve the services an agent enjoys in these communities, we need to improve the services other agents offer. Towards this goal, we propose a novel solution which allows communities to share the experience of their members with other communities. The experience of a community with an agent is captured in the evaluation rating of the agent within the community, which can either represent the trustworthiness or the reputation of the agent. We argue that exchanging this information is the right way to improve the services the agent offers since it: i) exploits the information that each community accumulates to allow other communities to decide whether to accept the agent while it also puts pressure on the agent to behave well, since it is aware that any misbehaviour will be spread to the communities it might wish to join in the future, ii) can prevent the agent from overstretching itself among many communities, since this may lead the agent to provide very limited services to each of these communities due to its limited resources, and thus its trustworthiness and reputation might be compromised. We study mechanisms that can be used to facilitate the exchange of trust or reputation information between communities. We make two key contributions. First, we propose a graph-based model which allows a particular community to determine which other communities to ask information from. We leverage consistency of past information and provide an equilibrium analysis showing that communities are best-off when they truthfully report the requested information, and describe how payments should be made to support the equilibrium. Our second contribution is a promise-based trust model where agents are judged based on the contributions they promise and deliver to the community. We outline a set of desirable properties such a model must exhibit, provide an instantiation, and an empirical evaluation.

In this thesis we study peer-based communities which are online communities whose services are provided by their participant agents. In order to improve the services an agent enjoys in these communities, we need to improve the services other agents offer. Towards this goal, we propose a novel solution which allows communities to share the experience of their members with other communities. The experience of a community with an agent is captured in the evaluation rating of the agent within the community, which can either represent the trustworthiness or the reputation of the agent. We argue that exchanging this information is the right way to improve the services the agent offers since it: i) exploits the information that each community accumulates to allow other communities to decide whether to accept the agent while it also puts pressure on the agent to behave well, since it is aware that any misbehaviour will be spread to the communities it might wish to join in the future, ii) can prevent the agent from overstretching itself among many communities, since this may lead the agent to provide very limited services to each of these communities due to its limited resources, and thus its trustworthiness and reputation might be compromised. We study mechanisms that can be used to facilitate the exchange of trust or reputation information between communities. We make two key contributions. First, we propose a graph-based model which allows a particular community to determine which other communities to ask information from. We leverage consistency of past information and provide an equilibrium analysis showing that communities are best-off when they truthfully report the requested information, and describe how payments should be made to support the equilibrium. Our second contribution is a promise-based trust model where agents are judged based on the contributions they promise and deliver to the community. We outline a set of desirable properties such a model must exhibit, provide an instantiation, and an empirical evaluation.

Thesis (M.S. in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography)--Naval Postgraduate School, Sept. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): Carlyle Wash. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49). Also available online.