Strategy

In this paper we consider single machine scheduling problems with a common due-date for all jobs, arbitrary monotone earliness and tardiness costs and arbitrary breakdown and repair processes. We show that the problem is equivalent to a deterministic one without breakdowns and repairs and with an equivalent cost function of a job's completion time. A V-shaped schedule without idle times is shown to be optimal, if this equivalent cost function is quasi-convex.

We consider the problem of scheduling N jobs on M parallel machines so as to minimize the maximum earliness or tardiness cost incurred for each of the jobs. Earliness and tardiness costs are given by general (but job-independent) functions of the amount of time a job is completed prior to or after a common due date. We show that in problems with a nonrestrictive due date, the problem decomposes into two parts. Each of the M longest jobs is assigned to a different machine, and all other jobs are assigned to the machines so as to minimize their makespan.

This paper presents an applied methodology to assist managers in strategically setting prices and allocating resources over the product, brand, or adoption (diffusion) life cycle. While substantial theoretical work has been achieved in this area in the management science and operations research disciplines, approaches which can be implemented as managerial tools are generally lacking.

Selling information that is later used in decision making constitutes an increasingly important business in modem economies (Jensen 1991). Information is sold under a large variety of forms: industry reports, consulting services, database access, and/or professional opinions given by medical, engineering, accounting/ financial, and legal professionals, among others.

We consider multimachine scheduling problems with earliness and tardiness costs. We first analyze problems in which the cost of a job is given by a general nondecreasing, convex function F, of the absolute deviation of its completion time from a (common) unrestrictive due-date, and the objective is to minimize the sum of the costs incurred for all N jobs. (A special case to which considerable attention is given to the completion time variance problem.)

We use when-issued transactions data to assess the Treasury's current experiment with uniform auctions. When-issued volume is higher under uniform as compared to discriminatory auctions, suggesting a higher information release, which should reduce pre-auction uncertainty and the winner's curse. Under uniform auctions, when-issued volatility falls after the auction and again after the outcome announcement. The pattern is the opposite for discriminatory auctions. This is further evidence that uniform auctions increase pre-auction information and lower the short squeeze.

This paper presents a stochastic multidimensional unfolding (MDU) procedure to spatially represent individual differences in phased or sequential decision processes. The specific application or scenario to be discussed involves the area of consumer psychology where consumers form judgments sequentially in their awareness, consideration, and choice set compositions in a phased or sequential manner as more information about the alternative brands in a designated product/service class are collected.

When the surge of equity REIT initial public offerings (IPOs) came to market in 1993 and 1994, the quality as well as an obvious increase in the quantity of newly securitized real estate (approximately $15.1 billion in the first two years of this bull market), defined a new REIT marketplace. By the end of 1995, the implied market capitalization of equity REITs had reached $59 billion, fourfold its size in 1992, and these real estate companies controlled approximately $83 billion in real estate.