Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a form of automated replenishment under which a supplier takes responsibility for managing a customer¡¦s inventory levels for a given product or material. The promise of VMI was more efficient inventory management with less out-of-stock, improved sales and improved consumer satisfaction. Based on the sharing sales information, VMI makes suppliers reduce inventory and cost. Therefore, VMI is one of the most widely discussed initiatives for improving multi-firm supply chain efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of supplier¡¦s expected cost by using the sharing sales information .We assume the underlying demand process faced by the retailer is ARMA(1,2). We model the supplier¡¦s delivery variance, optimal delivery-up-to level, and expected cost under three different levels of information sharing, namely no information sharing, partial information sharing, and total information sharing. Furthermore, we study the sensitivity analysis of supplier¡¦s delivery variance, optimal delivery-up-to level, and expected cost for the following four factors: lead-time l, correlation coefficient , tow-weights in ARMA(1,2), and , followed by numerical examples to verify our findings. The main results are as follows. 1¡B Information sharing stabilizes the supplier¡¦s delivery and reduces supplier¡¦s optimal delivery-up-to level as well as expected cost. 2¡B In each level of information sharing, there is positive effect to the supplier¡¦s delivery variance, optimal delivery-up-to level, and expected cost for every factor. 3¡B All the factors multiply the cost reduction effect contributed by increasing the level of information sharing. Among all, the lead time l and cause the most significant effect.

<p>Humanitarian logistics is a young science and complex discipline compared to business logistics because not only are actors in that arena compelled to work with outmost speed in <em>interrupted </em>environments having undetermined demand, they are also forced to work closely with other unknown players. Even more complex are civil-military relations because as studies show, the differences between these two humanitarian actors run deep to include contrasting missions, humanitarian principles, organizational and cultural differences.</p><p>The purpose of this work is to examine civil-military relations during the preparedness and response phases of humanitarian crises. We developed a frame of reference, set forth some operational and theoretical definitions, examined overlapping supply chains, modeled organizational structures and coordination mechanisms, established civil-military cooperation framework, disaster cycle studies and proposed a working model.</p><p>Our methodology included primary data collection through an empirical study of two NGOs and the military force through a series of interviews. Data culled was then analyzed in conjunction with the models and literature outlined in the frame of reference.</p><p>Based on our analysis, a number of observations were made in the conclusion. To begin with a number of strategies are employed during the preparedness and response phase where speed and agility are crucial. Also, overlapping roles between the military and NGOs have both positive and negative impact. Different organizational structures and funding outlay mean differences abound in how actors coordinate activities and share information. Cooperation, trust, information sharing and coordination are closely linked when finding a strategic fit among actors. In spite of the attempt at seeking a right formula for civil-military relations, it would be erroneous to ‘standardize’ relations as no two cases are ever the same.</p>

This dissertation consists of five papers with specific objectives. The overall objective is, however, to seek a deeper understanding of the challenges of real estate management in the commercial real estate sector. The purpose of the first two papers is to provide a mapping of the industry and a better knowledge of the main organizational strategies of the companies and their view of customer relations. The third paper looks at the possibility that the online office market is a so-called lemons market, where primarily "bad" objects are marketed. The last two papers compares companies that outsource property management and companies that has property management in house. The first of the two (paper IV) address the question of incentives for effort and the second (paper V) address information for decision-making, both however consider how the real estate owner has created incentives and regulations to ensure that they are informed. From the first paper we learn that the commercial real estate industry in Sweden already before 2004 had made a shift from a product focus towards a customer/service focus. However we could not see an increased customer focus in the annual reports during the years 2004-2008. Paper II also conclude that regardless of organisational form of management, inhouse or outsourced, the executives state that the chosen form I to be able to deliver best service to the customer. In paper III a test of the online marketplace for offices in Malmö CBD was conducted to investigate if the market is a lemon market or not. Management form was one of the quality signals together with scale, existence of a local office and if the company has been involved in cases in the special court for rents (Hyresnämnden). The conclusion was that lemons hypothesis could not be rejected. The conclusions from paper IV and V pinpoints the occurrence of differences in how to build incentives for the real estate management organisation, if it is organised in-house or outsourced. As the management teams in the outsourced setting primarily is governed by the contract between the real estate owning company, and the service providing company, and there it is decided when and how they are to deliver in terms of service and information. The real estate management teams in the in-house setting instead act under a large freedom with responsibilities governing the outcome of their services and not any checklists or jobdescriptions. Regardless of how the management teams are governed they do not have monetary incentives tied to their individual performance. / <p>QC 20150929</p>

Background Today, collaboration between actors in a supply chain is often a necessity if a business wants to remain competitive. Moreover, efficient sharing of information is vital for success in this collaboration. One way of sharing demand and inventory information between the customer and supplier in a supply chain is by utilizing vendor managed inventory, VMI. The recent focus on VMI has produced a great number of articles on this subject, however, few of them give the whole picture of the VMI relationship. The VMI literature tends to have its focal point on the large customers in a supply chain, failing to cover the effects of VMI for the small and medium-sized (SME) supplier. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to study VMI and its effects on the small and medium-sized supplier. The thesis will look at VMI from an electronic information sharing perspective. Realisation The study has a qualitative approach and is based on qualitative interviews conducted with representatives from three SME suppliers and one of their largest customers. In addition, interviews were conducted with VMI experts. Results The study shows that the prime motive for SME suppliers to enter into a VMI partnership is the demands of the customer. The fact that the SME supplier gains competitive advantage and gets access to information when joining a VMI collaboration are further reasons. For a successful implementation, the SME supplier must know his prerequisites, understand the goal and vision of the collaboration, participate in the design phase of the collaboration, and use the VMI information efficiently. In the long run, VMI normally leads to reductions in inventory, production, transportation and administrative costs for the SME supplier. Any absence of benefits can be due to the logistical knowledge being isolated to a few individuals. The VMI collaboration must bee seen as a strategic matter and a long term investment.

Shared Decision Making (SDM) in medical consultations has received significant attention in the literature over the past 10 years. Research indicates that patients’ desire both components of SDM, information sharing and behavioural involvement, to differing degrees (Flynn, Smith, & Vanness, 2006) and that matching medical care to these preferences may be associated with better patient health outcomes (Cvengros, Christensen, Cunningham, Hillis, & Kaboli, 2009). In this thesis, relationships between SDM preferences and patients’ personal characteristics (demographic factors and personality attributes) were investigated (Objective one), as well as associations between patient’s SDM preferences and the features of the health concern that they were seeking care for (Objective two). The current study used 158 Christchurch residents who were part of a longitudinal health and wellbeing study. They completed a questionnaire that measured their general SDM preferences, their demographic and personality characteristics and their preferences for SDM, given four hypothetical health complaints. These complaints varied in duration and perceived seriousness. Demographic variables and personality variables accounted for approximately the same amount of variance in participants’ general preferences for SDM, together describing 33% and 42% of the variance in information sharing and behavioural involvement. The strongest contributors were all three Health Locus of Control variables, sex and education level. Big Five personality traits and participant self-rated physical health did not account for a significant amount of variance in SDM preferences, once all variables were controlled for. In addition, the features of the health concern were marginally associated with participants’ SDM preferences for that specific consultation. Between-subjects analyses found that the duration or perceived seriousness of the health complaint were not associated with SDM preferences reported within the first scenario, once participants’ general SDM preferences were accounted for. Whereas, these two features described a significant amount of variance in participants’ information sharing preferences in the within-subjects analyses, when participants’ general SDM preferences were controlled for. Post-hoc analyses reported that chronic health complaints, that were perceived to be highly serious, elicited significantly greater preferences for information exchange than all other scenarios. No association occurred for participants’ preferences for involvement in final decision making across the four scenarios. The findings emphasise that differences occur in patients’ preferences for information sharing and behavioural involvement; both in regard to their general preferences and their specific preferences for these components of SDM within a given consultation. They also identify the central role that patients’ personality characteristics may play in determining their collaboration and involvement in healthcare; associations that are often overlooked by the SDM literature. The current findings contribute to our understanding of patient’s preferences for SDM and implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Members of distributed teams often have difficulty sharing unique information with their teammates during decision making tasks. These communication problems may hinder the development of cognitions that allow team members to reach a similar understanding of the content and structure of task information. The C-MAP intervention (Rentsch, Delise, & Hutchison, 2008) was designed to assist team members in sharing their information through behaviors that convey the content and structure of information by using specific communication behaviors and developing a knowledge object. In the present study, the knowledge object took the form of a white board where information was posted and organized. The development of the team knowledge object was the focus of the study. Using the knowledge object, team members could post a piece of unique information, highlight it, and organize it into clusters, thereby illustrating the content and structure of information through knowledge object development (KOD) behaviors. The present study evaluated the relationships among four types of KOD behaviors (posting content, highlighting content, conveying structure within domain, and conveying structure across domains) used to externalize pieces of unique information and two team cognition variables (transferred and interoperable knowledge) that develop with respect to each piece of unique information. Results provided evidence that posting content behaviors and highlighting content behaviors were positively related to transferred knowledge. Results also indicated that conveying structure within domain behaviors were negatively related to interoperable knowledge. However, conveying structure across domains behaviors were positively related to interoperable knowledge. Implications of these findings for the C-MAP intervention and suggestions for future research are presented.

Rapporten bygger på en fallstudie som gjorts på Yilport Gävle AB och dess försörjningskedja gällande sågat virke. Informationsdelning mellan aktörer i en försörjningskedja är en viktig del i den dagliga verksamheten. Bristande informationsdelning påverkar flera delar i försörjningskedjan som personalplanering och ledtider. Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga informationsflödet inom en bulk-terminals försörjningskedja och dess tillhörande aktörer, samt att se över vilka möjligheter som skapas om informationsdelning förbättras mellan aktörer i försörjningskedjan.   Teoriavsnittet är uppbyggt med sekundärdata som samlats in via litteraturstudier, och de ämnen som behandlas är logistik, försörjningskedja, information, informationsdelning och hållbarhet. Empirin i studien är insamlad via observationer och intervjuer med Yilport Gävle AB, sågverk, speditör och transportör, vilket alla är aktörer i den aktuella försörjningskedjan. Kartläggningen visar att aktörerna i dagsläget enbart delar information till de som står närmast i försörjningskedjan. Genom att använda sig av gemensamma mål och skapa delaktighet kan arbetet med utökad informationsdelning förbättras. Vilket i sin tur skapar möjligheter för kostnadsreducering, minskade ledtider, lägre lagernivåer och effektivare produktionsplanering. Studien lyfter fram hållbarhet som en möjlig förbättring när det kommer till informationsdelning mellan aktörer i en försörjningskedja. Forskning har tidigare inte lyft hållbarhet som ett möjligt förbättringsområde vid förbättrad informationsdelning. / The report is based on a case study conducted at Yilport Gävle AB and its supply chain for saw timber. Information sharing between actors in a supply chain is an important part of the daily activities and if it lacks in any link it will influence, for instance, lead times and staff planning. The purpose of this study is to map the flow of information within a bulk-terminal supply chain and its associated actors, as well as to review what opportunities are created if information sharing is improved between actors in the supply chain. The theory section is structured with secondary data, collected through literature studies and the topics covered are logistics, supply chain, information, information sharing and sustainability. The empirical data in the study is collected through observations and interviews with Yilport Gävle AB, sawmill, freight forwarder and carrier, all of which are actors in the current supply chain. The mapping shows that actors currently share information only to those closest to them in the supply chain. By using common goals and creating participation, the work on expanded information sharing can be improved. This can create opportunities for cost reduction, reduced lead times, lower inventory levels and more efficient production planning. The study highlights sustainability as a possible improvement when it comes to information sharing between actors in a supply chain. Earlier research has not lifted sustainability as a possible improvement area when improving information sharing.

abstract: Customers today, are active participants in service experiences. They are more informed about product choices, their preferences and tend to actively influence customer and firm related outcomes. However, differences across customers become a significant challenge for firms trying to ensure that all customers have a `delightful' consumption experience. This dissertation studies customers as active participants in service experiences and considers three dimensions of customer participation -- in-role performance; extra-role performance-citizenship and elective behavior; and information sharing -- as its focal dependent variables. This study is grounded in services marketing, customer co-production and motivation literatures. The theoretical model proposes that customer behaviors are goal-directed and different consumers will have different reactions to the service quality because they have different assessments of progress towards their goals and (consequently) different levels of participation during the service experience. Customer role clarity and participation behavior will also influence the service experience and firm outcomes. A multi-step process was adopted to test the conceptual model, beginning with qualitative and quantitative pretests; followed by 2 studies (one cross-sectional and other longitudinal in nature). Results prove that customer participation behaviors are influenced by service quality directly and through the mediated path of progress towards goals. Assessment of progress towards goals directly influences customer participation behaviors cross-sectionally. Service quality from one service interaction influences customer in-role performance and information sharing in subsequent service interactions. Information sharing influences service quality in subsequent service interactions. Role-clarity influences in-role and extra-role performance cross-sectionally and influences these behaviors longitudinally only in the early stages of the customer-firm relationship. Due to multi-collinearity, the moderating effect of customer goals on assessment of progress towards goals could not be tested. The study findings contribute to the understanding of customer participation behaviors in service interactions for both academics and managers. It contributes to the literature by examining consumption during the service interaction; considering customers as active participants; explaining differences in customer participation; integrating a forward-looking component (assessment of progress towards goals) and a retrospective component (perceptions of service quality) to explain customer participation behaviors over time; defining and building measures for customer participation behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2011

Dans le cadre de ma thèse, je me demande à quelles conditions le travail en groupe peut être le catalyseur susceptible de réduire les biais de raisonnement prégnants au niveau individuel. Particulièrement, je m’intéresse à l’heuristique de représentativité.Je réponds à cette question en m’inspirant du paradigme du partage des informations. Selon celui-ci, les membres des groupes ne partagent pas leurs informations uniques. Je postule qu’amener les groupes à discuter les informations pertinentes à la résolution du problème est le critère minimum, et peut-être suffisant pour garantir des performances de raisonnement optimales. J’ai pensé que ça pourrait être le cas si les participants disposaient de méta-informations les informant sur la distribution des informations au sein du groupe. Six études examinent le rôle des méta-informations sur la réduction des biais dans le raisonnement en groupe. Les résultats des 3 premières études mettent en évidence l’effet positif des méta-informations sur le travail en groupe.Dans les 3 études suivantes, je nuance le degré de généralité des conclusions antérieures. Mes résultats indiquent que les estimations individuelles préalables au travail en groupe peuvent elles aussi être affectées par la présence de méta-informations. De plus, celles-ci colorent la perception des membres du groupe quant à la pertinence des données uniques qu’elles désignent, les amenant à des raisonnements biaisés si ces données ne sont pas pertinentes. Enfin, l’effet des méta-informations sur le partage n’est pas positif à tous les coups : Si la coopération maximise leur effet, celui-ci est délétère lorsque la compétition règne parmi les membres du groupe. / Within my thesis’ framework, I asked myself under what conditions group-work could constitute a catalyst likely to reduce biases in individual reasoning. Particularly, my attention was drawn to the heuristic of representativeness. I answered this question through the lens of the information sharing paradigm. These authors showed that group members do not pool unshared information. Such statement led me to an unseemly question. If group members do not share information that is indispensable to solve a problem, by what means would they succeed avoiding reasoning pitfalls? Also, I stated that to bring groups over “discussing all information that is pertinent to the problem’s resolution” was the bare minimum criteria to succeed and it was maybe enough to guarantee satisfying reasoning performances. I predicted that it might be the case if participants had available meta-information. A total of six studies examine the role of meta-information on reducing biases within group thinking. The results from the first 3 studies underline the positive effect of meta-information.In the subsequent 3 studies, I scrutinize the generalities previously stated. Results also point to individual and previous-to-work estimations being affected by meta-information. Furthermore, meta-information colors group members’ perception regarding the pertinence of the unshared data it assigns, leading them to biased reasoning, when such data is not relevant. Finally, meta-information’s effect on information sharing is not always positive : it becomes deleterious once competition takes over group members.

A informação tem assumido ao longo dos anos maior papel de destaque no cotidiano empresarial, com as organizações contemporâneas passando reconhecê-la possivelmente como o seu principal recurso. Associado a isso, assistimos ao crescimento cada vez maior de um volume de informações organizacionais não estruturadas, mas que são de profunda importância na tomada de decisão; o que justifica o aumento de discussão do tema nos últimos anos. Atribui-se nada menos que quatro quintos (4/5) de informação não estruturada dentre todas as informações criadas em uma organização, volume considerável, pois, e para os quais ainda muito há por fazer em termos de métodos, técnicas e ferramental. Este trabalho se insere na continuação das pesquisas do grupo GIANTI (Grupo de pesquisa de Gestão do Impacto da Adoção de novas Tecnologias de Informação), complementarmente à abordagem referente à gestão da informação com caráter subjetivo, enfatizando seu compartilhamento nas organizações. O presente estudo objetivou adentrar neste contexto através de uma Observação Participante realizada na empresa Johnson & Johnson, propondo um framework de estruturação da coleta e do tratamento das informações qualitativas e mesmo subjetivas, baseado no compartilhamento de informações informais para sua utilização em processos decisórios individuais ou coletivos, trabalhando com uma dinâmica prática de processos, aqui denominado “Escuta Permanente”. A partir de uma literatura que buscou elementos de processo decisório e de compartilhamento de informação, foi possível retomar e agregar elementos ao conceito de Escuta Permanente, bem como operacionalizá-lo através de uma ferramenta computacional via web. Como contribuição, considera-se que teve condições de demonstrar, na realidade observada, a utilidade e, sobretudo a aplicabilidade do conceito de Escuta Permanente, mostrando-se efetiva sua aderência e link com os referenciais teóricos propostos, associando a aplicação prática e relevância a possíveis ganhos com sua utilização em maior escala. / Information has assumed over the years greater role in everyday business, with contemporary organizations through possibly recognize it as their main resource Associated with this, we see the growth of a growing volume of unstructured organizational information, but which are of profound importance in decision making, which explains the increased discussion of the topic in recent years. Assigns up no less than four-fifths (4/5) of unstructured information from all the information created in an organization, considerable amount, therefore, and for which there is still much to be done in terms of methods, techniques and tools. This work is part of the continuation of the research group GIANTI (Management Research Group Impact of the Adoption of New Information Technologies), complementary approach to the management of information relating to subjective character, emphasizing his sharing in organizations. The present study aimed to penetrate this context through a Participant Observation held at Johnson & Johnson company, proposing a model for structuring the collection and processing of qualitative information and even subjective, based on informal information sharing for its use in decision-making processes or individual collective, working with a dynamic practice processes, here called "Listen Standing." From a literature that sought elements of decision-making and sharing of information, it was possible to resume and add elements to the concept of Permanent Listening and operationalized it through a web-based computational tool. As a contribution, it is able to demonstrate that had actually observed, utility and especially the applicability of the concept of Permanent Listening, showing up your grip and effective link with the theoretical frameworks proposed, involving the practical application and relevance to possible gains from their use on a larger scale.