京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・論文博士 / 博士(農学) / 乙第13338号 / 論農博第2881号 / 新制||農||1079(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R2||N5245(農学部図書室) / (主査)教授 廣岡 博之, 教授 松井 徹, 准教授 熊谷 元 / 学位規則第4条第2項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

The complementary prism of a graph G is the graph formed from a disjoint union of G and its complement ̄G by adding the edges of a perfect matching between the corresponding vertices of G and G. We study independent domination numbers of complementary prisms. Exact values are determined for complementary prisms of paths, complete bipartite graphs, and subdivided stars. A natural lower bound on the independent domination number of a complementary prism is given, and graphs attaining this bound axe characterized. Then we show that the independent domination number behaves somewhat differently in complementary prisms than the domination and total domination numbers. We conclude with a sharp upper bound.

The complementary prism of a graph G is the graph formed from a disjoint union of G and its complement ̄G by adding the edges of a perfect matching between the corresponding vertices of G and G. We study independent domination numbers of complementary prisms. Exact values are determined for complementary prisms of paths, complete bipartite graphs, and subdivided stars. A natural lower bound on the independent domination number of a complementary prism is given, and graphs attaining this bound axe characterized. Then we show that the independent domination number behaves somewhat differently in complementary prisms than the domination and total domination numbers. We conclude with a sharp upper bound.

This dissertation addresses gaps in the interaction between End-of-Life (EoL) product acquisition systems and disassembly sequencing. The research focuses on two remanufacturing research problems; 1) modeling uncertain EoL product quality, quantity, and timing in regards to EoL product acquisition and disassembly sequencing and 2) designing EoL product acquisition schemes considering EoL product uncertainty. The main research objectives within these areas are; analyzing, predicting, and controlling EoL product uncertainty, and incorporating EoL product uncertainty into operational and strategic level decisions. This research addresses these objectives by researching a methodology to determine optimal or near-optimal partial disassembly sequences using infeasible sequences while considering EoL product quality uncertainty. Consumer incentives are integrated into the methodology to study the effect of EoL product take-back incentives, but it also allows for the study of EoL product quantity uncertainty. EoL product age distributions are key to integrating the disassembly sequence method with EoL product acquisition management, acting both as an indicator of quality and as a basis for determining return quantity when considering incentives. At a broader level, this research makes it possible to study the impact of EoL product quality, and to an extent quantity, uncertainty resulting from strategic level (acquisition scheme) decisions, on operational (disassembly sequencing) decisions. This research is motivated by the rising importance of value recovery and sustainability to manufacturers. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Product Stewardship (PS) policies are, globally, changing the way products are treated during their use-life and EoL. Each new policy places a greater responsibility on consumers and manufacturers to address the EoL of a product. Manufacturers, in particular, may have to fulfill these obligations by such means as contracting 3rd parties for EoL recovery or performing recovery in-house. The significance of this research is linked to the growing presence of remanufacturing and recovery in the US and global economy, either via profitable ventures or environmental regulations. Remanufacturing, in particular, was surveyed by the US International Trade Commission in 2011-2012, where it was determined that remanufacturing grew by 15% to $43 billion, supported 180,000 full-time jobs from 2009-2011, and is continuing to grow. A partial disassembly sequence, multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) is used a solution procedure to address the problem of determining the optimal or near-optimal partial disassembly sequence considering a continuous age distribution of EoL or available consumer products, with and without a consumer take-back incentive. The multi-objective GA, novel to the presented approach, relies on infeasible sequences to converge to optimal or near-optimal disassembly sequences. It is verified with a discrete economic and environmental impact case prior to incorporating EoL product age distributions. Considering the age distribution of acquired EoL products allows for decisions to be made based not only on expected profit, but also on profit variance and profit probability per EoL product, which was not observed in previous literature. As such, the research presented here within provides three contributions to disassembly and EoL product acquisition research: 1) integrating EoL product age distributions into partial disassembly sequencing objective functions, 2) accounting for partial disassembly sequence expected profit, profit variation, and profit probability as compared to disassembly sequencing methods that have, historically, only considered expected profit, and 3) studying the impact of EoL product age distributions and consumer take-back incentives on optimal or near-optimal partial disassembly sequences. Overall, this doctoral research contributes to the body of knowledge in value recovery, reverse logistics, and disassembly research fields, and is intended to be used, in the future, to develop and design efficient EoL product acquisition systems and disassembly operations. / Ph. D.

The emergence of online entrepreneurship platforms made it possible for entrepreneurs to fund their innovative ideas through financial support from business angels, venture capitalists, and crowds. Nevertheless, technology product development projects are the most difficult to fund on such platforms, with the least funding success and highest unsuccessful dollar value among all categories. One major factor affecting funding success on these platforms is the extent of perceived innovativeness of the presented technology products. The extant literature evinces that product innovativeness perception is influenced not only by novelty but also meaningfulness perception and that innovativeness brings higher funding success when novel projects are also perceived to be meaningful. By drawing on the theory of resonance, this study investigates the impact of interactivity on the extent of perceived innovativeness by creating an impact on resonance, which is proposed to represent all pre-identified aspects of meaningfulness. An online experiment was conducted to empirically validate the proposed research model, and increased interactivity was found to be positively associated with perceived product innovativeness through higher resonance. Theoretically, this study proposes the resonance concept to account for the meaningfulness perception regarding innovative product ideas and demonstrates the positive effect of increased interactivity on perceived innovativeness. For practitioners, the results provide evidence for the positive impact of interactive product presentation on the increased perception of resonance and, thus, innovativeness, which evinces a higher potential for funding success in highly innovative product development projects. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This paper is about the central role of product design on consumer evaluations. While the design literature has articulated two different types of design, i.e. form-based design and function-based design (Khalid 2004), most extant marketing literature has mostly focused on the impact of functional design on performance (see Chitturi, Raghunathan, and Mahajan (2007) for a notable exception). In this paper, I examine the individual and joint effects of the two design dimensions: form design and functional design on consumer evaluations of new products. In the first essay, employing theoretical underpinnings from processing fluency theory, I investigate four major research questions. First, all else equal, does form design matter? Second, how does form design interact with functional design? Third, does the interaction between form and functionality change in an innovation context? Specifically, given a certain level of functionality, what type of form is more advantageous for a radically new product (RNP) or an incrementally new product (INP)? Fourth, is there an individual difference in consumer evaluations to innovative products with various form designs? Results from the four experiments conducted demonstrate that (1) more typical form design leads to more positive attitudes toward the product than less typical form design, (2) a more typical design compensates for the average functionality of the product and hence a product with average functionality is evaluated as well as highly functional products in the more typical design condition. In a less typical design condition, a product with high functionality leads to much lower consumer attitudes towards the product, (3) whereas the form design for incremental innovations must be closer to the incumbent products for favorable evaluations, less typical form is evaluated as good as more typical form for radical innovations. (4) Form design of an innovative product matters more to the technologically more sophisticated consumers (experts) than technologically less sophisticated consumers (novices). In the second essay, I examine the issues involved in using form design to nullify first mover advantage. Pioneers or first movers can be defined as the first firm to sell in a new product category. Despite the proliferation of the pioneering advantage research, there are few empirical studies which examined how the product design enables the later entrants to nullify the first mover advantage. Employing theoretical underpinnings from categorization theory, I investigate the following research questions. First, what type of form is more likely to enhance consumer evaluations and nullify first mover advantage when the follower's product is featured with higher or lower functionality? Second, how does form design interact with functional design for the follower's product? Results from the experimental study conducted demonstrate that (1) if the follower's functionality is not superior to the pioneer's, follower had better focus on design differentiation which can compensate for the lower functionality of the follower (2) if the follower's functionality is superior to the pioneer's, follower had better follow the pioneer's design for the better product evaluation. The managerial implication is clear: Form design is a critical determinant of consumer evaluations. Form design helps create and appropriate value for firms.

As E-commerce continues to take market share from traditional brick and mortar businesses, there are few choices left for managers apart from migrating their sales online. While the topic of online adoption has been studied extensively, this thesis attempts to investigate one of the major drivers of complexity within the industry - the role of structured product data. The study was performed on a major Nordic online retailer, and identified a set of six guiding propositions on the topic of structured product data in e-commerce from interviews with industry professionals. Contemporary data science literature contributes to the body of evidence suggesting a strategically prioritized focus on creating and maintaining structured product data is the way of the future for ecommerce, aligning with much of the interview results. Furthermore, the propositions were thoroughly examined through multiple linear regression analysis on data from the same firm. The study gives empirical support for significant positive impact on most studied metrics from having structured product data available on the website as well as within the internal systems, with slight discrepancies across product categories. / I takt med att e-handeln fortsätter att ta marknadsandelar från traditionella fysiska butiker finns det få alternativ för ledningsgrupper förutom att migrera sin försäljning online. Online-migrering som ämne har studerats i stor utsträckning tidigare, men denna uppsats försöker utforska en av huvuddrivarna till branschens komplexitet – rollen av strukturerad produktdata. Studien gjordes på en större nordisk e-handlare, och identifierade sex ledande teman inom ämnet för strukturerade produktdata i e-handel genom intervjuer med experter på bolaget. Kontemporär litteratur inom datavetenskapen bidrar till belägg för att ett strategiskt prioriterat fokus på att skapa och managera strukturerad produktdata är vägen framåt för e-handeln, vilket ligger i linje med resultaten från intervjuerna inom studien. Vidare analyserades de identifierade temana genom multipel linjär regression genom data från bolaget. Studien ger empiriska belägg för att strukturerad produktdata på e-handlarens hemsida samt i de interna systemen ger signifikant och positiv påverkan på de flesta responsvariabler, med vissa diskrepanser mellan produktkategorier.

The last few decades have seen an explosion in population growth and along with this growth we have also witnessed an increase in demand for products. Although our resources are limited, consumers' needs know no bounds. It is not surprising that we are also increasingly demanding more from our environment. It is therefore imperative that we make better use of our resources and reassess how we construe a product's lifecycle. Instead of a linear perspective, which typically follows a product's lifecycle from mining of raw materials to manufacturing, but then stops when products are trashed, we need to use a circular perspective, where we focus on the entire lifecycle of products, from not just manufacturing to usage, but also from usage to creation of new products through recycling. The focus of this dissertation is on understanding two important processes in the circular economy: that of usage and disposal. I focus on the role that consumers' product valuations play in these processes. In essay 1, I show that consumers value products made from recycled materials more than comparable regular products. I also document why this happens and demonstrate how this affects usage. In essay 2, I investigate the relationship between reuse and product disposal. The circular economy is based on what is now referred to as the 3R approach: reduce, reuse, and recycle. However, I show that consumers are more (vs. less) likely to trash products that they have used extensively (vs. rarely). This then leads to a conundrum: if we encourage consumers to reuse products extensively, it appears that they are more likely to trash them. It is therefore imperative that we understand this relationship better and find interventions to mitigate this negative relationship. / Doctor of Philosophy / The last few decades have seen an explosion in population growth and along with this growth we have also witnessed an increase in demand for products. To create a more sustainable world, it is imperative that we move towards a more circular economy, where we not only minimize waste, but also find ways to extract more use from our resources. One way to do this is to find ways to reuse products after they have reached the end of their lifecycle. The focus of this dissertation is on understanding two important processes in the circular economy: that of usage and disposal (essentially addressing questions about what to do with products that we no longer have a need for). I primarily focus on the role that consumers' product valuations play in influencing these processes. In essay 1, I study how consumers feel about products made from recycled materials. I find that consumers are willing to pay more for products made from recycled materials compared with products made from regular raw materials. The higher willingness to pay emerges because consumers value the process that transforms the recycled materials into brand new products. I also show that this valuation impacts use: consumers use products made from recycled materials more judiciously. In essay 2, I investigate the relationship between product usage and disposal. I find that when consumers use a product more extensively, they are more likely to trash the product compared with other forms of reuse, such as, disposing in the recycling bin, giving it to others, or reselling it. This effect emerges because when consumers use a product more frequently, they believe that the product has less value remaining for others, and a product that confers lower value to others should be trashed.

A life cycle cost based methodology for choosing among mutually exclusive design alternatives is presented in this study. The methodology places emphasis on the iterative nature of the design process. That is, choosing among design alternatives involves the pairwise comparison of the current design iteration to a "baseline" design. An Equivalent Cost Function provides the cause-effect framework on which the methodology is based. In generating a design alternative, the designer alters design features (cause). These features manifest themselves as design dependent parameters (effect), and for each set of such values, optimal values of design variables are sought. This design development process occurs in the face of design independent parameters, with the final result being a value of equivalent life cycle cost. / Master of Science

A life-cycle cost evaluation model is presented to assess the effect of design decisions (made in an attempt to induce higher degrees of producibility) upon a product's life-cycle cost. The model provides a measure of effectiveness in terms of an expected annual equivalent total system life-cycle cost for a deployed population of the product being evaluated. Parametric relationships are established between aspects of the product and the level to which the product is designed for producibility. These aspects include areas of cost arising during each phase of the product life cycle. The model limits the number of product design alternatives to three scenarios which are defined as a product designed to be highly, moderately, and less producible. The best of the three design alternatives is selected based upon the life-cycle costs calculated. / Master of Science