Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Customer services Econometric models'

"January 2002" Includes bibliographical references: (p. 31-34). The primary purpose of this study is to develop a framework for identifying the primary drivers of the costs of being customer responsive. The authors' aim is to develop an understanding of the causal drivers of the costs of responsiveness as these costs are considered to be an important input to strategic and tactical decisions. In developing this framework, the paper links the characteristics of responsive manufacturing from the operations management literature with the insights from studies in the accounting literature relating to the drivers of cost. The paper attempts to model the cost impact when a firm responds to ad hoc demands involving the product customization, variation in product mix, or changes to delivery schedules. The costs emerge as a function of the type of responsiveness and the resource capacity management strategy implemented by the firm. The magnitude and dynamics of market demands and firm response, as well as the inherent flexibility of the firm's resources are seen as influencing the magnitude of the costs of responsiveness. disper

Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.<br>Committee Chair: Dr. Laurie A. Garrow; Committee Member: Dr. John D. Leonard; Committee Member: Dr. Mark Ferguson; Committee Member: Dr. Michael D. Meyer; Committee Member: Dr. Patrick S. McCarthy. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The continued advances in service-oriented computing and global communications have created a strong technology push for online information sharing and business transactions among enterprises, organizations and individuals. While these communities offer enormous opportunities, they also present potential threats due to a lack of trust. Reputation systems provide a way for building trust through social control by harnessing the community knowledge in the form of feedback. Although feedback-based reputation systems help community participants decide who to trust and encourage trustworthy behavior, they also introduce vulnerabilities due to potential manipulations by dishonest or malicious players. Therefore, building an effective and resilient reputation system remains a big challenge for the wide deployment of service-oriented computing. This dissertation proposes a decentralized reputation based trust supporting framework called PeerTrust, focusing on models and techniques for resilient reputation management against feedback aggregation related vulnerabilities, especially feedback sparsity with potential feedback manipulation, feedback oscillation, and loss of feedback privacy. This dissertation research has made three unique contributions for building a resilient decentralized reputation system. First, we develop a core reputation model with important trust parameters and a coherent trust metric for quantifying and comparing the trustworthiness of participants. We develop decentralized strategies for implementing the trust model in an efficient and secure manner. Second, we develop techniques countering potential vulnerabilities associated with feedback aggregation, including a similarity inference scheme to counter feedback sparsity with potential feedback manipulations, and a novel metric based on Proportional, Integral, and Derivative (PID) model to handle strategic oscillating behavior of participants. Third but not the least, we develop privacy-conscious trust management models and techniques to address the loss of feedback privacy. We develop a set of novel probabilistic decentralized privacy-preserving computation protocols for important primitive operations. We show how feedback aggregation can be divided into individual steps that utilize above primitive protocols through an example reputation algorithm based on kNN classification. We perform experimental evaluations for each of the schemes we proposed and show the feasibility, effectiveness, and cost of our approach. The PeerTrust framework presents an important step forward with respect to developing attack-resilient reputation trust systems.

Mestrado em Economia e Gestão de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação<br>O sector terciário ocupa nas economias actuais um papel preponderante no desenvolvimento competitivo. Aqueles que o consideravam, no que respeita a inovação, como o sector vagaroso da economia, observaram o surgimento de um grupo de serviços com características semelhantes às das indústrias de alta tecnologia, com o privilégio de verificarem que, para além de inovadores, são também importantes elementos de interligação entre agentes económicos, permitindo quer a difusão quer a criação de novo conhecimento na economia. Esse grupo de serviços, que se denominou de serviços intensivos em conhecimento, tem vindo a desenvolver-se em Portugal, aproximando-se de forma gradual, ainda que com algum caminho a percorrer, de um conjunto de países mais avançados. Este desenvolvimento verificou-se, no entanto, de forma desigual ao nível de distribuição espacial, tendo-se identificado fenómenos de concentração regional em torno de algumas das regiões mais desenvolvidas: Grande Lisboa e Grande Porto. Condicionados pelas limitações estatísticas, procedeu-se ainda à estimação de modelos econométricos de dados seccionais, que com um carácter ainda muito exploratório, se verificou que o desempenho destes sectores em Portugal está essencialmente relacionado com fenómenos de qualificação de recursos humanos e da densidade destes sectores numa dada região.<br>The tertiary sector plays a lead role in the competitive development of contemporary economies. Innovation wise, those who originally considered it the economy's slowest sector, later recognised the emergence of an integrated group of services that shared similar characteristics with the high-tech industries, whereby in addition to being innovative, also became important bridging elements of economic factors, paving the way for the creation and distribution of new knowledge within the economies. Later known as Knowledge Intensive Business Services, this faction grew strongly in Portugal, gradually catching up - even if still in its infancy today - with other more advanced countries, however it soon became evident that it's geographic and spatial distribution was regionally disproportionate, tending to concentrate mostly around the more developed areas of Greater Lisbon and Greater Oporto. Restrictions imposed by statistical limitations lead to the development of cross-sectional econometric models and the information obtained from early exploratory phases estimated that the performance of these sectors in Portugal is still today intimately related to the categorisation of the human resources and the density of these sectors within a given region.

Within the new constitutional order, South African local government has been afforded specific status and is protected as a distinctive sphere of government in terms of the Constitution Act 108 of 1996. Municipalities are no longer a mere function of national or provincial governments. In addition to this entrenched status, the Constitution and other developmental local government legislation vests local government with specific functions and responsibilities as part of the process of building a new democracy and promoting socio-economic development and upliftment. Consequently, local government managers are under constant pressure to improve the performance and quality of service delivery. They are expected to satisfy a number of stakeholders, achieve increases in efficiency, as well as attain developmental service delivery goals as contained in their Integrated Development Plan (IDP). Quality management standards and excellence models in support of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy are relatively new public management approaches that changes traditional organisational decision-making practices to deliver services to its customers in more effective and efficient ways. In essence, quality management standards and excellence models are performance management methodological practices, techniques and tools designed to meet and exceed public requirements. It accomplishes this through determining what constitutes excellence in customer service, and then empowering employees to a never-ending search for quality improvement in the delivery of services, in terms of the continuous improvement and continuous process improvement philosophies, of which total quality management (TQM) is premised on. Consequently, quality management standards and excellence models (such as the ISO 9001: 2008 QMS, ISO 14001: 2004 EMS, EFQM and SAEF Excellence Models) as methodological practices, techniques or tools in support of the critical factors (CFs) of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy, namely: (1) customer-based approach, (2) senior management commitment and leadership, (3) quality planning, (4) management based on facts, (5) continuous improvement, (6) involvement of all members of the organisation, (7) education and training, (8) teamwork, (9) communication systems, (10) learning, (11) process management, (12) co-operation with suppliers, and (13) organisational awareness and concern for the social and environmental context, can provide a framework by which to achieve the goals of effective and efficient service delivery in developmental local government, as they foster a culture of performance and accountability. Local government managers could use these quality and excellence methodological practices, techniques and tools, as a starting point to improve efficiencies in their municipalities, as the programmes afford them an opportunity to systematically evaluate the municipality and determine what leads to organisational success and deliverables. Institutional theory suggests that organisations are both influenced by and can influence the society in which they operate. Institutional theorists believe that the motivation for a change in internal practices might not only be performance related, but may primarily be to enhance or maintain the legitimacy of the respective institution. Institutional theory also focuses on the social contract that exists between the institution and society. This social contract is believed to represent the expectations of society. From an institutional point of view, it has been suggested that institutions may change and adopt the norms of society to appear legitimate to that society. This infers that when societal norms and values change, institutions will be expected to change. These societal pressures combined with legislative changes, require institutional entrepreneurs to respond to these isomorphic pressures, and will work to preserve the institution's legitimacy by incorporating, or at least appearing to incorporate, new practices, norms and values. The aim of this research study was to analyse within an institutional theory framework, the implementation of quality management standards and excellence models in support of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy and developmental local government within two South African municipalities. The research investigation has been undertaken within the social constructionist paradigm and using the case study method. Interviews and documents were the data sources and thematic analysis was used as a tool to analyse the data by applying a theory-driven coding procedure. The findings from the two research sites, namely Makana Municipality in Grahamstown and Drakenstein Municipality in Paarl reveal that the implementation of quality management standards and excellence models in support of the total quality management (TQM) philosophy in both municipalities was not a smooth process and there were many challenges such as political instability, lack of commitment on the part of the senior leadership and management, staff and skills shortages, resistance by staff to implementation and resource constraints. Institutional theory has proved to be useful in understanding why the Makana and Drakenstein Municipalities implemented quality management standards and excellence models. Because of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures affecting the Makana and Drakenstein municipalities, change was imperative if these institutions were to remain relevant and legitimate in order to address its service delivery mandate of effectiveness and efficiency. Institutional theory provided a theoretical lens to understand and appreciate the pressures that affected the municipalities because of its new developmental mandate as encapsulated in new municipal legislation. It also assisted in understanding how institutional entrepreneurs responded to these pressures to conform. The implementation of quality management standards and excellence models in the Makana and Drakenstein municipalities was adversely affected by volatility amongst the political leadership of both municipalities. The successful implementation of these standards and models would require collective action from the political, bureaucratic and procedural entrepreneurs in order to enhance effective, efficient and accountable service delivery. However, in both the Makana and Drakenstein municipalities, institutional entrepreneurs, namely councillors and officials were not working together as a collective to implement quality management standards and excellence models. Evidence has shown that the absence of stable political leadership and noncooperation and collaboration amongst institutional entrepreneurs contributed significantly to the non-institutionalisation of quality management standards and excellence models in these Municipalities. This implies that legitimacy has not been achieved, due to institutional entrepreneurs not collaborating and collectively working with each other to implement the quality management standards and excellence models. Thus, this research study suggests that the strategic and collective role of the political and administrative leadership as institutional entrepreneurs is critical if the municipality is to achieve its aims and objectives, namely effective, efficient, and accountable service delivery in developmental local government. Recommendations in respect of future research and to practitioners have also been offered.

Ho Yiu-chung.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-104).<br>Abstracts in English and Chinese.<br>Chapter Chapter One --- Introduction --- p.1-6<br>Chapter Chapter Two --- Literature Review --- p.7-27<br>Chapter Chapter Three --- Conceptual Models --- p.28-66<br>Chapter Chapter Four --- Empirical Study --- p.67-85<br>Chapter Chapter Five --- Discussions and Conclusion --- p.86-99<br>Bibliography --- p.100 -104

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Information Analysis and Management<br>The music industry has undergone strong changes in relation to its production, distribution and consumption habits, due to the exponential development of new technologies, namely streaming platforms. The fact that sales from physical copies continue to decline significantly made it mandatory for this industry to reinvent itself by introducing music streaming services as a key part of the development of its business. This study aims to understand the factors that influence the consumption of music through streaming platforms studying, particularly, the intention to purchase a paid version of a music streaming service and to recommend it. Therefore, an extension of the UTAUT2 model (version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, applied to the consumer side) was created. An online survey was used to collect data from 324 music streaming services users and the framework was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). It also included in-depth semi-structured interviews in order to draw conclusions about the profile of the new music consumer. Our findings verify that habit, performance expectancy and price value play the most important role in influencing the intention to use a paid music streaming service. The intention to recommend these services was also confirmed. With this analysis, centred in UTAUT2 theory, we contribute with new insights about music streaming services consumer behaviour, providing several theoretical and practical implications to music streaming services providers.

by Chan Wai Man.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-76).<br>Abstracts in English and Chinese.<br>LIST OF ILLUSTRATION --- p.iv<br>LIST OF TABLES --- p.v<br>Chapter CHAPTER I - --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.0 --- Overview --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.1 --- The Rationale --- p.1<br>Chapter 1.2 --- The Purpose --- p.3<br>Chapter 1.3 --- Significance of This Study --- p.3<br>Chapter 1.4 --- Outline of This Paper --- p.4<br>Chapter CHAPTER II - --- REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND MODEL DEVELOPMENT --- p.5<br>Chapter 2.0 --- Overview --- p.5<br>Chapter 2.1 --- What is Service Encounter --- p.5<br>Chapter 2.2 --- The Role of Temporal Dimensions of Service Encounters --- p.8<br>Chapter 2.2.1 --- Duration and Frequency --- p.8<br>Chapter 2.3 --- The Conceptual Model --- p.11<br>Chapter 2.3.1 --- "The Causal Relations among Duration, Frequency and Authentic Understanding" --- p.17<br>Chapter 2.3.2 --- "The Causal Relations among Duration, Frequency and Perceived Familiarity" --- p.20<br>Chapter 2.3.3 --- "The Causal Relations among Duration, Frequency and Efficiency" --- p.21<br>Chapter 2.3.4 --- "The Causal Relations among Authentic Understanding, Familiarity, Efficiency and Service Evaluation" --- p.24<br>Chapter 2.3.5 --- Summary --- p.27<br>Chapter CHAPTER III - --- METHODOLOGY --- p.28<br>Chapter 3.0 --- Overview --- p.28<br>Chapter 3.1 --- Research Design --- p.28<br>Chapter 3.2 --- Manipulations --- p.29<br>Chapter 3.3 --- The Sample and the Sampling Procedure --- p.29<br>Chapter 3.3.1 --- The Sample --- p.29<br>Chapter 3.3.2 --- Sampling Procedure --- p.29<br>Chapter 3.4 --- Data Collection Procedures --- p.30<br>Chapter 3.5 --- Operationalization of Constructs --- p.31<br>Chapter 3.5.1 --- Service Evaluation (EVA) --- p.31<br>Chapter 3.5.2 --- Authentic Understanding (UN) --- p.32<br>Chapter 3.5.3 --- Perceived Familiarity (FAM) --- p.32<br>Chapter 3.5.4 --- Efficiency (EFF) --- p.32<br>Chapter 3.6 --- Data Analysis --- p.33<br>Chapter 3.6.1 --- Manipulation Checks --- p.33<br>Chapter 3.6.2 --- MANOVA analysis --- p.34<br>Chapter 3.6.3 --- MANOVA by Structural Equation Modeling --- p.34<br>Chapter 3.7 --- Research Activities --- p.36<br>Chapter 3.7.1 --- Pretest 1 --- p.36<br>Chapter 3.7.2 --- Pretest 2 --- p.38<br>Chapter 3.7.3 --- The Main Study --- p.39<br>Chapter 3.8 --- Summary --- p.39<br>Chapter CHAPTER IV - --- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION --- p.40<br>Chapter 4.0 --- Overview --- p.40<br>Chapter 4.1 --- Manipulation Check --- p.40<br>Chapter 4.2 --- MANOVA analysis --- p.40<br>Chapter 4.3 --- MANOVA by Structural Equation Modeling --- p.45<br>Chapter 4.3.1 --- Results --- p.47<br>Chapter 4.3.2 --- Model Evaluation --- p.51<br>Chapter 4.4 --- Discussion --- p.55<br>Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.58<br>Chapter CHAPTER V - --- CONCLUSION --- p.59<br>Chapter 5.0 --- Overview --- p.59<br>Chapter 5.1 --- Summary of the Research --- p.59<br>Chapter 5.2 --- Contributions of the Study --- p.61<br>Chapter 5.2.1 --- The Theoretical Contributions --- p.61<br>Chapter 5.2.2 --- The Managerial Implications --- p.62<br>Chapter 5.3 --- The Limitations --- p.65<br>Chapter 5.4 --- Future Research --- p.67<br>Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.68<br>THE REFERENCE --- p.69<br>Appendices --- p.77

碩士<br>康寧大學<br>企業管理研究所<br>102<br>Cloud" is a familiar term in recent years, most of information technology , information technology and related industries , whether public or private sector , have to follow from the "cloud" trend, information services issues in this environment will make the cloud many changes. " Cloud services " is a kind of low-cost, high-efficiency mode of service companies in general , give customers the feeling of the scene with traditional services and telephone services in the course of the phase comparison service , in which , after all, is not the same at many purpose of this study to analyze the " cloud services " and " traditional service " considerations focus on whether the perceived value generated feelings will affect customer loyalty . This study focuses on the relationship between perceived value and customer loyalty explore information services traditional service models and cloud service model generated for the customer . The purpose of this study are as follows : First , understand the customer type and its regional characteristics. Second, understand the traditional service model for the relationship between perceived value and customer loyalty . Third, understand the cloud service model for the relationship between perceived value and customer loyalty . Fourth, explore the differences in perceptions of traditional customer service model and cloud service model . V. investigate the effect of perceived value generated feelings of loyalty . Sixth, the empirical relationship between the construction and service model , perceived value and loyalty. The research method was adopted random sampling survey to " Taiwan information service customer satisfaction survey " questionnaire as a research tool , and information technology in Taiwan has experience in business as an object, in northern, central , and southern areas of research, 300 is expected to be issued using analysis of variance, regression analysis and other methods studied. The main results are as follows : 1 contains the demographic variables of difference analysis ; variables due to regional differences , age , position, by industry , company size and level of education are significantly different ; 2 traditional service model and acceptance and loyalty cloud service model will vary, 3 The results of this study provide a reference for information services and information technology vendors and technical direction of R & D strategy .

Direct response advertising in the financial services industry in South Africa has become one of the most important tactics companies utilise to build and maintain market share. Ensuring that these advertising campaigns yield optimal return on investment numbers is the responsibility of marketing departments and their partners in the marketing and sales processes, such as the creative and media agencies, the distribution force, as well as the client service area that supports the client value proposition. The marketing executive therefore is accountable for the planning, budgeting and execution of direct response campaigns, which need to deliver sufficient results to support the company’s overall business objectives. The challenge all marketers face is the lack of a proven structured and scientific methodology to facilitate this planning, budgeting and execution process. It has always been a general view in the marketing fraternity that it is extremely difficult if not impossible to combine creative output measures, which are subjective in nature, with cost, sales and profit measures, which are objective in nature. This study aims to create a structured approach to marketing strategising and planning, by creating a marketing metrics model that enables the marketing practitioner to budget according to output needed to achieve the overarching business objectives of sales, cost management and profit. This marketing metrics model therefore unpacks the business drivers in detail, but through a marketing effort lense, to link the various factors underlying successful marketing output, to the bigger business objectives. This is done by incorporating both objective (verifiable data, such as cost per sale) and subjective variables (qualitative factors, such as creative quality) into a single model, which enables the marketing practitioner to identify areas of underperformance, which can then be managed, tweaked or discontinued in order to optimise marketing return on investment. Although many marketing metrics models and variables exist, there is a gap in the combination of objective and subjective factors in a single model, such as the proposed model, which will give the marketer a single tool to plan, analyse and manage the output in relation to pre-determined performance benchmarks.<br>Business Management<br>DCOM (Business Management)

本文分為個部分：多技能員工調問題，和集合覆蓋、裝運和劃分混合問題多面體研究，其中第一部分問題啟發我們第二部分的探。<br>首先，我們研究在一個大型機場的國際客運站中客戶服務人員的調問題。員工有同的技能和技能水平。技能定義是二維的，包括操作技能和語言能。在學模型中，我們也考慮用餐和休息時間的調和多處工作地點。我們證明該問題是NP-hard 的。我們推導出有效等式，以方計算過程。我們的學模型能夠幫助規劃者做出決策，及可計算同型的活性對業務的影響。我們的模型也可以幫助決策者計劃長遠工作調和培訓。<br>多技能人員調問題啟發我們這篇文的第二部分：集合覆蓋、裝運和劃分混合問題多面體研究。我們首先證明如覆蓋（或裝運）的等式被删去，該多面體是相當於一個放寬的裝運（或覆蓋）多面體的投影。然後我們考慮混合奇穴多面體（即是一個由覆蓋和裝運等式組成的多面體），並採用圖方法研究，通過考慮同型的等式的互動，推導出混合奇穴等式和完全描繪多面體的特徵。我們再推導出集合覆蓋和裝運混合問題的混合奇穴等式。計算結果顯示，混合奇穴等式有助於減少計算時間。我們還提供子明如何用等式幫助決策。<br>This thesis is divided into two parts: Multi-Skilled Staff-Scheduling Problem and a polyhedral study on the Mixed Set Covering, Packing and Partitioning Problem, where the first part is a motivating example of the latter.<br>In the multi-skilled staff-scheduling problem, we study the problem of scheduling customer service agents at an international terminal of a large airport. The staff members are heterogeneous with different skills and skill levels. The skill specification is two-dimensional, defined by operational skills and language proficiency. In the mathematical model, we also consider the scheduling of meal and rest breaks, and multiple locations. The problem is shown to be NP-hard. We derive valid inequalities to speed up the computational procedure. With our mathematical model, we are able to help schedule planners make decisions and examine the impacts of different types of flexibility on the level of service provided. Our model can also help decision makers with long-term work-schedule planning.<br>Motivated by the staff-scheduling problem, the second part of this thesis studies the polyhedral structure of the mixed set covering, packing and partitioning problem, i.e., a problem that contains set covering, set packing and set partitioning constraints. We first study the mixed odd hole polytope, which is the polytope associated with a mixed odd hole consisting of covering and packing "edges". Adopting a graphical approach and considering the "interactions" between the different types of inequalities, we derive the mixed odd hole inequality, thereby completely characterizing the mixed odd hole polytope. We then generalize the mixed odd hole inequality for the general mixed covering and packing polytope. Computational results show that the mixed odd hole inequalities are helpful in reducing solution time. We also provide examples of problem settings in which the inequalities can be used to help decision making.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Detailed summary in vernacular field only.<br>Kuo, Yong Hong.<br>Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-129).<br>Abstracts also in Chinese.<br>Abstract --- p.i<br>Acknowledgement --- p.iii<br>Chapter I --- Scheduling of Multi-skilled Staff Across Multiple Locations --- p.1<br>Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.2<br>Chapter 2 --- Literature Review --- p.8<br>Chapter 3 --- Mathematical Model --- p.14<br>Chapter 3.1 --- Problem Formulation --- p.14<br>Chapter 3.2 --- Valid Inequalities --- p.20<br>Chapter 3.3 --- Shift Scheduling and Longer-Term Work-Schedule Planning --- p.21<br>Chapter 4 --- Computational Studies --- p.24<br>Chapter 4.1 --- Dataset and Input Parameters --- p.24<br>Chapter 4.1.1 --- Staffing Requirements and Shortage Penalties --- p.24<br>Chapter 4.2 --- Computational Study: Managerial Insights --- p.26<br>Chapter 4.2.1 --- Effect of Three Types of Flexibility --- p.26<br>Chapter 4.2.2 --- Impact of Different Types of Flexibility --- p.28<br>Chapter 4.3 --- Computational Study: Benefits Compared with Benchmarks --- p.33<br>Chapter 4.3.1 --- Heuristic H1: CSA Assignment by Time Period --- p.35<br>Chapter 4.3.2 --- Heuristic H2: CSA Assignment by Criticality --- p.35<br>Chapter 4.3.3 --- Comparison with Benchmarks --- p.37<br>Chapter 4.4 --- Computational Study: Computational Efficiency --- p.40<br>Chapter 5 --- Conclusions --- p.44<br>Chapter II --- On the Polyhedral Structure of the Mixed Set Covering, Packing and Partitioning Polytope --- p.47<br>Chapter 6 --- Introduction --- p.48<br>Chapter 7 --- Preliminaries --- p.51<br>Chapter 8 --- Overview of Packing, Covering and Partitioning Polyhedra --- p.58<br>Chapter 8.1 --- Set Packing Polytope --- p.58<br>Chapter 8.1.1 --- Intersection Graph --- p.59<br>Chapter 8.1.2 --- Lifting Procedures --- p.63<br>Chapter 8.1.3 --- Facet-Producing Subgraphs --- p.66<br>Chapter 8.2 --- Set Covering Polytope --- p.71<br>Chapter 8.2.1 --- Polyhedral Structure and the Associated Graphs --- p.71<br>Chapter 8.3 --- Set Partitioning Polytope --- p.76<br>Chapter 8.4 --- Blocking and Anti-Blocking Pairs --- p.78<br>Chapter 8.4.1 --- Blocking polyhedra --- p.78<br>Chapter 8.4.2 --- Anti-blocking polyhedra --- p.80<br>Chapter 8.5 --- Perfect, Ideal and Balanced Matrices --- p.81<br>Chapter 8.5.1 --- Perfect Matrices --- p.81<br>Chapter 8.5.2 --- Ideal Matrices --- p.83<br>Chapter 8.5.3 --- Balanced Matrices --- p.84<br>Chapter 9 --- Mixed Set Covering, Packing and Partitioning Polytope --- p.87<br>Chapter 9.1 --- Mixed Set Partitioning and Covering/Packing Polytope --- p.87<br>Chapter 9.2 --- Mixed Set Covering and Packing Polytope --- p.88<br>Chapter 9.2.1 --- Mixed odd hole --- p.90<br>Chapter 9.2.2 --- General Mixed Covering and Packing Polytope --- p.97<br>Chapter 9.3 --- Computational Experiments --- p.108<br>Chapter 9.4 --- Applications of the Mixed Odd Hole Inequality --- p.112<br>Chapter 9.4.1 --- Railway Time-Tabling --- p.112<br>Chapter 9.4.2 --- Team Formation --- p.113<br>Chapter 9.4.3 --- Course Registration --- p.114<br>Chapter 10 --- Conclusions --- p.117<br>Bibliography --- p.119

The service industry has become increasingly competitive. This dissertation addresses a number of outstanding and fundamental questions of competitions in service operations and supply chains. The challenges are characterization of the equilibrium behaviors, estimating the impact of firms' interactions, and designing of efficient market mechanisms. The first chapter of this dissertation considers price competition models for oligopolistic markets, in which the consumer reacts to relative rather than absolute prices, where the relative price is defined as the difference between the absolute price and a given reference value. Such settings arise, for example, when the full retail price earned by the ``retailer" is reduced by virtue of a third party offering a subsidy or a rebate or in prospect theoretical models in which customers establish a reference price and base their choices on the differentials with respect to the reference price. When choosing among the various competing options, the consumer trades off the net price paid with various other product or service attributes, as in standard price competition models. The reference price may be exogenously specified and pre-announced to the competing firms. Alternatively, it may be endogenously determined, as a function of the set of absolute prices selected by the competing firms, for example the lowest or the second lowest price. We characterize the equilibrium behavior under a general reference value scheme of the above type; this in a base model, where we assume that the consumer choice model is of the general MultiNomialLogit (MNL) type. We also derive comparison results for the price equilibria that arise under alternative subsidy schemes. These comparisons have important implications for the design of subsidy schemes. The second chapter applies the results of the first chapter to the Medicare insurance market, both in terms of its existing structure, as well as in terms of various proposals to redesign the program. Based on an oligopoly price competition model tailored towards this market, and actual county-by-county data for the year 2010, we estimate the impact such reforms would have on the plans' market shares, equilibrium premia, the government's cost, and the out-of-pocket expenses of the beneficiaries. We employ two different methodologies to derive the parameters in the county-by-county competition models: (i) a calibration model, and (ii) parameter distributions obtained from models estimated in Curto et al. (2015). The predicted impacts on the above performance measures are remarkably consistent across the two methodologies and reveal, for example, that the government cost would decrease by 8% if the traditional fee-for-service(FFS) plans are kept out of competitive bidding process and by 16.5%-21% if they are part of the process. The third chapter studies a class of buy procurement mechanisms, framework agreements (FAs), that are commonly used by buying agencies around the world to satisfy demand that arises over a certain time horizon. We are one of the first in the literature that provides a formal understanding of FAs, with a particular focus on the cost uncertainty faced by bidders over the FA time horizon. We introduce a model that generalizes standard auction models to include this salient feature of FAs; we analyze this model theoretically and numerically. First, we show that FAs are subject to a sort of winner's curse that in equilibrium induces higher expected buying prices relative to running first-price auctions as needs arise. Then, our results provide concrete design recommendations that alleviate this issue and decrease buying prices in FAs, highlighting the importance of (i) monitoring the price charged at the open market by the FA winner and using it to bound the buying price; (ii) investing in implementing price indexes for the random part of suppliers' costs; and (iii) allowing suppliers the flexibility to reduce their prices to compete with the open market throughout the selling period. These prescriptions are already being used by the Chilean government procurement agency that buys US$2 billion worth of contracts every year using FAs. The fourth chapter considers the preference of contractual forms in supply chains. The supply chain contracting literature has focused on incentive contracts designed to align supply chain members' individual interests. A key finding of this literature is that members' preferences for contractual forms are often at odds: the upstream supplier prefers more complex contracts that can coordinate the supply chain; however, the downstream retailer prefers the wholesale price--only contract because it leaves more surplus (than a coordinating contract) that the retailer can get. This chapter addresses the following question: under what circumstances do suppliers and retailers prefer the same contractual form? We study supply chain members' preference for contractual forms in three different competitive settings in which multiple supply chains compete to sell substitutable products to the same market. Our analysis suggests that both upstream and downstream sides of the supply chains may prefer the same ``quantity discount'' contract, thereby eliminating the conflicts of interest that otherwise typify contracting situations. More interesting still is that both sides may also prefer the wholesale price--only contract, which offers a theoretical explanation to why the simple inefficient contract is widely adopted in supply chain transactions.

O âmbito global da presente tese é o da análise dos fatores de influência na capacidade de retenção de clientes nos serviços pós-venda, do setor automóvel. A modalidade do trabalho é do tipo projeto, uma vez que surgiu na sequência da solicitação por parte da empresa de consultoria Viragem, S.A. Em síntese, o trabalho desenvolvido pretende fundamentar como preferível a opção pela assistência na marca, quando o cliente tem de decidir entre os concessionários de marca ou as oficinas independentes. O trabalho foi realizado numa abordagem de cariz quantitativo, em que a principal medida foi a definição e validação de um modelo de previsão, que pretende determinar a data da próxima visita de cada cliente aos concessionários. Foram, também, analisadas as respostas a dois questionários (um realizado no Brasil e outro realizado pela empresa Viragem aos seus clientes) para tentar encontrar nelas a resposta ao tema do trabalho. Os resultados observados estão globalmente alinhados com a literatura recolhida e entendida como importante para esta temática. Nas conclusões são apresentadas algumas sugestões para fazer face às lacunas identificadas, salientando-se a proposta de alteração do modelo de previsão atualmente implementado, dados os resultados positivos obtidos com um dos modelos matemáticos alternativos desenvolvidos no âmbito deste trabalho de projeto.<br>The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the ability to retain customers in after-sales service, particularly in the automobile sector. The type of work is a project type, as a result of a request from the consulting company Viragem, S.A. Indeed, the work developed aims to support as preferred option, the assistance in the brand when the customer has to decide between brand dealers or independent garages. The study was performed as an approach of a quantitative nature, in which the main outcome measure was the definition and validation of a forecasting model that pretends to determine the date of next visit of each customer to the brand workshop. We also analyzed two surveys (one conducted in Brazil and the other one made by the Viragem company to its customers) which allowed to remove important results in order to seek an answer to the issue of the work. The results are broadly in line with the literature collected and understood as important to this theme. In the conclusions are presented some suggestions to address the gaps identified, highlighting the proposed changing of the forecast model currently implemented, given the positive results obtained with one of the alternative mathematical models developed within this project work.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)<br>A sizeable body of research has attempted to examine the interaction between government spending and private giving known as the crowd-out effect. Most researchers reported that increases of government spending cause decreases of philanthropic giving to different types of nonprofits. However, few studies have attempted to indicate the interaction between government welfare expenditures and private giving to human service organizations even though human service organizations are the most sensitive to the changes of government spending. Additionally, the estimated crowd-out effects with a simple crowd-out model have been criticized for potential endogeneity bias. This paper investigates the total effect of federal government welfare spending on state government expenditures and philanthropic giving to human service organizations (known as joint crowd-out). I used the 2005 wave of the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) to estimate the effect of federal human service grants on state government spending on, and donations to human services. From these reduced-form estimates I infer the levels of simple and joint crowd-out. I found that indicate federal spending on public welfare crowds out private giving to human service organizations while holding control variables constant in the donations equation. However, federal government spending on public welfare crowds in state government spending on public welfare.