Do Ba Khang

Success criteria and factors for international development projects: A life‐cycle‐based framework

The paper presents a new conceptual model for not-for-profit international development projects that identifies different sets of success criteria and factors in the project life-cycle phases and then provides the dynamic linkages among these criteria and factors. The model can serve as a basis to evaluate the project status and to forecast the results progressively throughout the stages. Thus, it helps the project management team and the key stakeholders prioritize their attention and scarce development resources to ensure successful project completion. Empirical data from a field survey conducted in selected Southeast Asian countries confirm the models validity and also illustrate important managerial implications.

Time, cost and quality trade-off in project management: a case study

Abstract In 1996, Babu and Suresh proposed a framework to study the trade-off among time, cost and quality using three inter-related linear programming models. This paper describes our attempt to apply the method to an actual cement factory construction project. The purpose is to evaluate the practical applicability of the method by highlighting the managerial insights gained, as well as pointing out key problems and difficulties faced. As consequence, the paper helps practicing project engineers to have realistic expectations of the method. It also provides suggestions to overcome some practical problems if the method is to be applied in real industrial projects.

Managing information technology infrastructure: a new flexibility framework

Purpose – The purposes of this study are to present an operational definition of information technology (IT) infrastructure flexibility and to provide a framework for assessing its components.Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive review of the relevant literature was conducted along with expert interviews to determine what experts considered to be the characteristics of IT infrastructure flexibility. A questionnaire was then developed, and 388 IT personnel with a wide range of experience verified the proposed framework. Factor analysis was conducted to reveal the common aspects of IT infrastructure flexibility.Findings – The results expand on the four recognized components (connectivity, compatibility, modularity and IT personnel competency) from the literature by revealing five further components (scalability, continuity, rapidity, facility and modernity).Research limitations/implications – The issue of external validity should be a concern because the samples were collected only from IT personne...

Does ICT adoption enhance hotel performance

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption on hotel performance in Thailand.Design/methodology/approach – The elements for measuring the level of ICT adoption include: availability of ICT components, integration of ICT components, and intensity of ICT usage. Operational productivity and customer satisfaction were used for measuring hotel performance. To control for the influence of location and employee and management characteristics on hotel productivity, data were collected solely from three star hotels operating in the same location, Phuket, Thailand. Operational productivity was calculated by using data envelopment analysis. A five‐point Likert type scale was employed to measure customer satisfaction. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to assess the relationship between ICT adoption and hotel performance.Findings – The findings indicate that ICT adoption has a significant positive relationship with hotel perform...

Optimality of Myopic Ordering Policies for Inventory Model with Stochastic Supply

This paper addresses a discrete time inventory model where the maximum amount of supply from which instantaneous replenishment orders can be made is a random variable. Optimal ordering policies are characterized as critical number policies with monotone increasing optimal critical values. A sufficient condition is then presented for myopic ordering policies to be optimal.

Approximate solutions of capacitated fixed-charge minimum cost network flow problems

This article proposes two approximate methods to solve capacitated, single-commodity and fixed-charge network flow problems. First, relaxed problems obtained by the Lagrange relaxation method are shown to form a minimum spanning tree problem, yielding a lower bound to the original problem. The subgradient optimization technique can be then applied to improve this bound by updating the Lagrange multipliers. The second part of the article presents a new, simple, and efficient heuristic to find a feasible and approximate solution that is also an upper bound to the original problem.

Mobile marketing and consumer perceptions of brand equity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of SMS (Short Message Service) advertising on consumer perceptions of Au Bon Pains brand equity in Thailand.Design/methodology/approach – The experimental study was based on a 4×2 between‐subjects design, with four levels of message types (personalization, interactivity, general, and no message control) and two levels of permission (with and without permission). Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the hypotheses.Findings – SMS marketing is found to have a significant positive impact on brand awareness and perceived quality. Personalized, interactive, and general messages are effective for building brand awareness, and general and personalized messages positively influence perceived quality. With the right choice of message, explicit permission enhances the effects of SMS marketing on brand association.Research limitations/implications – The experiment was conducted over a period of one month, with three SMS ads sent to each su...

A new algorithm to find all vertices of a polytope

This paper presents a new algorithm to find all the vertices of a polytope using a polyhedral annexation method. The algorithm exploits the vertex-facet duality correspondence between a polytope and its polar set to construct an increasing sequence of polytopes whose vertices are included in the vertex-set of the original polytope.

Quality expectations in Thai higher education institutions: multiple stakeholder perspectives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the quality indicators that are suitable for assuring quality in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Thailand, from the perspectives of students, teaching staff, managerial staff and employers. These quality expectations are then to be compared with the quality indicators of the Office of Higher Education Commission (OHEC) in Thailand.Design/methodology/approach – A list of quality expectations was first established based on a review of the literature and the OHEC quality indicators, then finalized with input from interviews with experts and a pilot survey. Over 2,000 questionnaires were then delivered to stakeholders. Statistical analyses of differences and factors were conducted and compared with OHECs official list of quality indicators.Findings – In terms of relative perceived importance, while the rank correlations among quality expectations of different stakeholder groups were generally high, a correlation between students and teaching/manager...

MULTI-PERIOD STOCHASTIC NETWORK FLOW PROBLEMS WITH SERVICE LEVEL REQUIREMENTS: APPROXIMATION AND ERROR ESTIMATES

A multi-period network flow formulation with uncertain demands is proposed which covers many stochastic production and inventory models with service level requirements. The problem is approximated with a concave cost deterministic network flow problem. Relative error bounds are given which indicate that the approximation is good enough to be accepted in practice.