Diss. Univ. der Bundeswehr München Neubiberg, 2009. / Business and Economics (German Language) (Springer-11775) (GWV).

Diss. Techn. Univ. Berlin, 2005.

The roles of deputy and pro vice chancellors (DPVCs) are changing and so is the way they are being appointed. This study examines (i) why many pre-1992 English universities are moving from an internal, fixed-term secondment model of DPVC appointment to one incorporating external open competition; and (ii) what the implications of change are for individual careers and management capacity building. At a theoretical level, it explores the extent to which DPVC appointment practice is symptomatic of ideal-type managerialism and subjects the prevailing academic narrative - that the power of academics has declined in relation to that of managers - to critical examination in the light of the findings. The research, which uses a mixed-methods design incorporating a census, online survey and 73 semi-structured interviews, has generated some unexpected findings. Notably, the opening up of DPVC posts to external open competition has resulted in a narrowing, rather than a diversification, of the gender and professional profile of successful candidates. Therefore, although this change to DPVC recruitment practice was motivated by a meritocratic “quest for the best,” it cannot be said to have improved management capacity in the sense of increasing the likelihood that the best candidates are attracted and appointed from the widest possible talent pool. On the contrary, the findings are suggestive of conservatism, homosociability and social closure, whereby academic managers maintain their privileged status by ring-fencing DPVC posts to the exclusion of other occupational groups. DPVCs are also expanding their professional jurisdiction by colonising the university’s management space. Far from declining, academics’ power is thus being consolidated, albeit by a few elite career track academic managers. Moreover, although there is some evidence of a managerial ideology with respect to the DPVC appointment model, it is a context-specific ‘academic-managerialism’ rather than a generic ideal type.

This research attempts to answer the question of how to measure the performance of management tools. This study integrates qualitative and quantitative research by developing a set of definitions and a set of indicators for information-oriented performance measurement and by validating the indicators with a statistical analysis. Criteria for measuring organizational system performance are borrowed from Sink (1985) and operationalized for measuring information-oriented performance. The operational measures are applied to a set of information documents. The documents are evaluated by four different groups of subjects. The evaluations are compared to the calculations from the operational measures to address the validity of the measures. The evaluations support the productivity, input quality, and output quality measures. The evaluations don't support the efficiency and effectiveness measures. Further refinement of the validation procedures is suggested before further refinement of the performance measures. This research makes two general contributions: a foundation for further development of performance measures for management tools and recommendations for future research. / Master of Science

<p> This dissertation examines the facility location problems in the presence of barrier regions and consists basically of four essays exploring new problems. Despite the fact that the facility location problems considering barriers to travel are more realistic than their unrestricted counterparts, research in the area is relatively limited. This is due to the computational complexity associated with them. </p> <p> The first essay analyzes the problem of locating a facility in a region in the presence of a probabilistic line barrier. The objective is to locate the facility such that the sum of the volume times distances between the facility and demand points is minimized. Some convexity results are presented and a solution algorithm is proposed. </p> <p> Another interrelated problem is locating a facility in a region where a fixed line barrier such as a borderline divides the region into two. The regions communicate with each other through a number of passage points located on the line barrier. A version of this problem with minisum objective has been studied in the literature where the locations of the passage points are known. The second essay considers a number of extensions to this problem and proposes an efficient solution methodology based on the Outer Approximation algorithm. </p> <p> The third essay discusses the problem of locating a rectangular barrier facility m an area where interactions among existing facilities are present. The problem has two objectives. The first objective is to minimize the interference of the barrier facility to the interactions among the existing facilities. The second objective is to find a center (minimax) location for the barrier facility. The problem is formulated as a bi-objective problem and a mixed integer program is proposed as a solution methodology. A Simulated Annealing algorithm is presented for an extension of the problem where expropriation of existing facilities is also possible. </p> <p> Finally, the last essay suggests a practical analog approach for facility location problems in the presence of barriers. The use of the analog for certain problems is justified through some analytical results and a number of problems that appeared in the literature are solved efficiently. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study is divided into two main parts. The first section deals with mathematical properties of distance functions. The fp norm is analyzed as a function of its parameter p, leading to useful insights for fitting this distance measure to a transportation network. Properties of round norms are derived, which allow us later to generalize some well-known results. The properties of a norm raised to a power are also investigated, and these prove useful in our subsequent analysis of location problems with economies or diseconomies of scale. A positive linear combination of the Euclidean and rectangular distance measures, which we term the weighted one-two norm, is introduced. This distance function provides a linear regression model with interesting implications on the characterization of transportation networks. A directional bias function is defined, and examined in detail for the Pp and weighted one-two norms. In the second part of this study, several properties are derived for various forms of the continuous minisum location model. The Weiszfeld iterative solution procedure for the standard Weber problem with fp distances is also examined, and global and local convergence results obtained. These results are extended to the mixed-norm problem. In addition, optimality criteria are derived at non-differentiable points of the objective function. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study describes algorithms for the solution of several single facility location problems with maximin or minimax objective functions. Interactive computer graphical algorithms are presented for maximizing the minimum rectilinear travel distance and for minimizing the maximum rectilinear travel distance to a number of point demands when there exist several right-angled polygonal barriers to travel. For the special case of unweighted rectilinear distances with barriers, a purely numerical algorithm for the maximin location problem is described. An interactive computer graphical algorithm for maximizing the minimum Euclidean, rectilinear, or general 1p distance to a number of polygonal areas is described. A modified version of this algorithm for location problems with the objective of minimizing the maximum cost when the costs are non-linear monotonically decreasing functions of distance is presented. Extension of this algorithm to problems involving the minimization of the maximum cost when the costs are functions of both distance and direction is discussed using asymmetric distances. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis deals with game theory and its applications in management science and focuses upon some management science areas such as inventory control and new product development. Some interesting theoretical findings and new policies are obtained by using the game theoretical approach to analyze certain management science problems. The discussion starts with a review of static game theory models and their applications in management science. Of particular interest here is the state of the art of game theory as an analytical technique in management science. Chapters Two and Three discuss the discount problem. Particular attention is paid to the gaming nature and the buyer's demand aspect of the problem. It is shown that, if they work independently and rationally, the seller and the buyer can gain from price discount only if it can attract more demand from the buyer. Nevertheless, they can gain from quantity discount even if demand is constant. Quantity discount is always better than a price discount for the seller and, in certain situations, can be very efficient in obtaining the maximum profit. Optimal decisions are obtained for both the seller and the buyer under various conditions. Chapter Four studies the order quantities of substitutable products with stochastic demands. This analysis extends the newsboy problem analysis into situations with three or more players. It is shown that there is one Nash equilibrium for the problem. If any player(s) acts irrationally, the other players' decision problem reduces to the one without the irrational player(s). If cooperation is possible, their decisions depend on whether side payments are allowed. If side payments are allowed, they will determine their order quantities together. If side payments are not allowed, secure strategies exist for each player. It is also shown that all players' cooperation is often worthwhile and feasible. Chapter Five analyzes the growth of new repeat purchasing products. It is shown that markets of repeat purchasing products will never saturate like that of consumer durable products unless customers are extremely loyal to at least one product. For new repeat purchasing products, the optimal advertising strategy is increasing at the introductory stage and then decreasing or possibly terminating after some time and, the optimal service strategy is monotonically increasing at the introductory stage and then possibly maintained constant at a certain level. Especially, more advertising should be done at early stages against competitors' advertising campaign. The game is solved analytically for optimal strategies in the case where all the control functions representing the effects of advertising and service are linear in the control variables. Finally, the main findings and possible extensions to this research are briefly summarized in Chapter Six. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This thesis represents research in the combined areas of inventory and maintenance. It analyzes two independent inventory and maintenance problems under dynamic systems: (i) a production and maintenance problem and (ii) a repairable-item inventory problem. For each problem, the thesis develops a new control model and proposes a simultaneous determination of optimal inventory and maintenance policies. The first part of the thesis examines a production process where the process performance deteriorates over time in the absence of preventive maintenance. First, it develops a new finite-time control model for optimal production and maintenance decisions by combining a dynamic maintenance model with a production control model. Second, it derives the necessary conditions for optimal production and maintenance controls using the maximum principle. Finally, it proposes two optimization algorithms for numerically solving the necessary conditions already derived. The second part of the thesis considers the repairable-item inventory problem, which may be faced at each period by the inventory manager responsible for determining the optimum quantities to purchase new serviceable units, to repair and to junk returned repairable units in order to satisfy random demand for serviceable units. First, it proposes an inventory model for repairables, incorporating several important features. The model includes a periodic review policy, random demand, lost sales for unsatisfied demand, set-up costs for ordering and repair, and a dynamic return process. Second, it employs a quite different solution methodology from what the previous research has used. The approach employed here is a 'Markov decision process (MDP)'. With this approach, the inventory problem is remodelled as a discrete-time Markov decision problem with two-dimensional state and three-dimensional decision spaces and then solved for finite-time planning horizon using the backward induction algorithm and for infinite-time planning horizon using the method of successive approximations. Finally, it introduces and utilizes two acceleration techniques, the error bounds approach and State Decomposition by Dimension (SDD), for speeding up the convergence of the computational methods described above.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This research studies the concept of responsiveness in management tools to improve the match between a management tool and managers using it. This research first operationalizes the concept of responsiveness. The concept involves two components: a management tool and managers using it. Responsiveness is a property of the tool for matching the varying and evolving needs of the managers. It requires certain capabilities of the tool: functionality, user interface capability, and adaptivity. Responsiveness implies a certain process: observe and understand the manager, and interpret and implement his or her needs. This study combines the concept with artificial intelligence technology and introduces the responsive system. A responsive system mainly consists of three parts: the application program, the user interface, and the responsive layer. The responsive layer is the core of a responsive system, employing the blackboard architecture and performing the responsiveness process. To realize the structure of a responsive system, this study builds a prototype responsive management tool called MSLTRAIN, which helps managers schedule their training needs for computer packages. MSLTRAIN observes the behavior of the user, infers the user’s preferences and decision patterns, reasons the user’s goals, and responds appropriately based on the user’s goals. To evaluate the effect of responsiveness in MSLTRAIN on user performance and user satisfaction, this study conducts a laboratory experiment involving twenty human subjects. The subjects use and compare the prototype responsive management tool (R-MSLTRAIN) with the orginal MSLTRAIN (O-MSLTRAIN) that doesn’t have responsive features. The results support responsiveness has positive effect on user performance and user perception to a limited degree. This study opens the door to management tools responsive to the varying and evolving needs of the managers. I believe responsiveness in management tools will improve success and sharing of the management tools. The concept of responsiveness and the structure of a responsive system can be applied to other domains. / Ph. D.