Jichang Dong

Evolutionary location and pricing strategies for service merchants in competitive O2O markets

Attracting customers in the online-to-offline (O2O) business is increasingly difficult as more competitors are entering the O2O market. To create and maintain sustainable competitive advantage in crowded O2O markets requires optimizing the joint pricing-location decision and understanding customers’ behaviours. To investigate the evolutionary location and pricing behaviors of service merchants, this paper proposes an agent-based competitive O2O model in which the service merchants are modeled as profit-maximizing agents and customers as utility-maximizing agents that are connected by social networks through which they can share their service experiences by word of mouth (WOM). It is observed that the service merchant should standardize its service management to offer a stable expectation to customers if their WOM can be ignored. On the other hand, when facing more socialized customers, firms with variable service quality should adopt aggressive pricing and location strategies. Although customers’ social learning facilitates the diversity of services in O2O markets, their online herd behaviors would lead to unpredictable offline demand variations, which consequently pose performance risk to the service merchants.

A STOCHASTIC APPROACH TO HOTEL REVENUE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERING MULTIPLE-DAY STAYS

We present a stochastic optimization model for hotel revenue management with multiple-day stays under an uncertain environment. Since a decision maker may face several scenarios when renting out rooms, we use a semi-absolute deviation model to measure the risk of hotel revenue, and only consider the risk of falling below the expected revenue. The method proposed in this paper can be changed to a linear programming model by applying linearization techniques. Some examples are presented to illustrate the efficiency of this method.

XML-BASED DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS: CASE STUDY FOR PORTFOLIO SELECTION

The extensible, structural and validated nature of XML provides standard data representation for efficient data interchange among diverse information resources available on the Web. Therefore, it leads to its growing recognition in e-commerce and Internet-based information exchange. In this paper, we stress the adoption of XML technology in developing efficient and flexible Web-enabled decision support systems. Based on a case study for portfolio selection systems, we explore the design issues in applying XML to overcome the heterogeneity of data exchange and sharing of various portfolio optimization models.

Application of integrated web services-based e-business and web services-based business process monitoring

In this paper, a solution that aims to help develop web services-based e-business and web services-based business process monitoring is provided. Some issues, such as security models and access control policy, asynchronous transaction support, and reliability of transactions in the process of developing e-business, are addressed in this solution. Moreover, we provide a mechanism to define the web services provided by supplier organizations and to record their business objectives to enable performance measurement.

Web-based portfolio management with multi-criteria decision and bundle trading

We propose a Web-based business model, which integrates the process of portfolio benchmarking, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), and the bundle trading, aiming to help the fund managers to make their investment decisions better by constructing efficient portfolios and re-balancing their portfolios online. In this model, a benchmark is defined firstly, and then the multi-criteria decision analysis is used to adjust the benchmark to a final efficient portfolio. Also, in the process of multi-criteria decision analysis, we consider the importance among the criteria by using a fuzzy set technique to weight the criteria. Once the portfolio allocations are made, fund managers may apply bundle trading system online to revise their allocations as conditions change.

Reaserch of weapons and equipment capability evaluation based on comprehensive fuzzy model

For weapons and equipment, capability assessment is a static attribute measurement, which is also the most important work of equipment evaluation. Based on comprehensive fuzzy model, a comprehensive evaluation method is presented to describe fuzzy characteristics of capability index. Basic principle of comprehensive fuzzy evaluation is analyzed and detailed flow and steps are given. To get the initial evaluation data, a questionnaire investigation table about weightiness of capability indexes is designed. Finally, an example is calculated to prove validity of this method. The comprehensive method provides a feasible idea for equipment capability evaluation.

XML-Based schemes for business project portfolio selection

Many methodologies have been introduced to deal with project portfolio selection problem including some techniques that help to evaluate individual projects, or to select a portfolio among available projects. This paper, however, provides several XML-based schemes for building efficient and flexible project portfolio selection systems based on an integrated portfolio selection model proposed. In additional to provide an interactive and adaptable portfolio selection management framework for the organizations, we also stress the use of XML to standardize the data representation for developing Webbased decision support systems with heterogeneous data sources and multiple decision models.

A trust-region algorithm for equality-constrained optimization via a reduced dimension approach

A trust-region algorithm is presented for solving optimization problem with equality constraints. The algorithm uses the Byrd--Omojokun scheme to compute the steps, and decompose the trial steps into two components: normal component and tangential component. But it differs from the Byrd--Omojokun algorithm with a reduced dimension approach in computing each tangential component. Global convergence of the proposed algorithm is proved under some mild assumptions. Three numerical examples are given to illustrate the efficiency of the algorithm.

Acquisition discount and valuation effect of private M&As in China

An acquisition discount can reflect not only the liquidity demands for unlisted targets but also the strategic requirements, management efficiencies and capital allocations for the listed bidders. Based on Officer (2007), the authors choose an acquisition approach to generate an acquisition discount for unlisted targets. In China, unlisted firms are sold at a deeper discount than listed firms. The deeper discount mainly depends on the liquidity demand and the characteristics of the bilateral trading components. Larger bidders tend to pay more, whereas smaller targets are sold at lower discounts. The values of unlisted targets in the TMT industry are underestimated. Furthermore, buying out unlisted targets can significantly increase the abnormal return of public bidders during the announcement period. Deeper discounts or stock payments have a positive effect on the stock values of the bidders, whereas this positive increase will be weakened if the bidder is large or has a previous ownership relationship.

The Evaluation of Financing Efficiency of China’s Stock Market

Financing is the main way for listed companies to obtain funds in China, and it is the “reservoir” which can guarantee enterprises to operate continuously. Financing efficiency can be used to measure the efficiency in using enterprises’ own funds, and it is one of the main indicators which are concerned by the stakeholders of listed companies. This paper mainly researches on the impact of equity financing on the financing efficiency of listed companies as a whole and selects 300 listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange as decision-making units. Then this paper analyzes the financial data of sample companies in 2008–2014. Finally, it can be concluded that the financing efficiency of listed companies in China is generally low, and the total factor productivity in the stock market continued to decline between 2003 and 2005 and then rose rapidly.