• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.99-117
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• 2018

This study has investigated Linear Programming (LP) applications to special decision making problems in managerial accounting with the help of spreadsheet Solver tools. It uses scenario approaches to case examples having three products and three resources in make-and-supply business operations, which is applicable to cases having more variables and constraints. Integer Programmings (IP) are applied in order to model situations when products are better valued in integer values or logical constraints are required. Three cases in one-time-only special order decisions include Goal Programming approach, Knapsack problems with 0/1 selections, and fixed-charge 0/1 integer modelling techniques for set-up operation costs. For the decisions in outsourcing problems, opportunity-costs of resources expressed by shadow-prices are considered to determine their precise contributions. It has also shown that the improvement in work-shop operation for an unprofitable product must overcome its 'reduced cost' by the sum of direct manufacturing cost savings and its shadow-price contributions. This paper has demonstrated how various real situations of special decision problem in managerial accounting can be approached without mistakes by using LP's and IP's, and how students both in accounting and management science can acquire LP skills in their education.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.47-55
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• 2016

The proliferation of the Internet and related technologies has led to a new form of distribution channels, namely online retailers. The conventional offline and the new online retailers have different transaction costs perceived by the consumers in the following perspectives: the accessibility to the product information, the traffic cost and the opportunity cost for the time to visit the store, the delivery time and the possibility of 'touch and feel' to test the quality of the product. In particular, the online retailers have lower distribution cost structure in that they do not have physical stores, which results in lower selling price. Thus they continuously offer price competition against offline retailers using the lower selling cost as competitive weapon. Moreover the emergence of the social commerce is likely to intensify the competition between the online and offline retailers. To survive in this fierce competition, the offline retailers are trying to defend their business interests by sticking to offline transaction in anticipation of increased customer loyalty, customer's preference for 'touch and feel' style shopping, and others. Despite of these efforts, customers who touch and feel a product in an offline store but purchase the product through an online retailer are increasing. To protect such customers, recently, some of the offline retailers began to provide the mobile discount service (MDS) which enables the offline customers to purchase a product at a discounted price through the mobile applications. In business competitions, the price discount strategy is usually considered to secure more market share at the cost of lower profit. In this study, however, we analyze the effect of MDS as a weapon for securing more profit. To do this, we set up a game model between the online and offline retailers which incorporates the effect of the MDS. By numerically analyzing the Nash equilibrium of the game, some managerial implications for using the MDS for more profit are discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Inteligent Information System Society Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.241-250
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• 2005

New product development (NPD) is defined as the transformation of a market opportunity and a set of assumptions about product technology into a product available for sale. Managers charged with project selection decisions in the NPD process, such as go/no-go choices and specific resource allocation decisions, are faced with a complicated problem. Therefore, the ability to develop new successful products has identifies as a major determinant in sustaining a firm's competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to develop a new evaluation model for NPD project selection in the high -tech industry using support vector machines (SYM). The evaluation model is developed through two phases. In the first phase, binary (go/no-go) classification prediction model, i.e. SVM for high-tech NPD project selection is developed. In the second phase. using the predicted output value of SVM, feasibility grade is calculated for the final NPD project decision making. In this study, the feasibility grades are also divided as three level grades. We assume that the frequency of NPD project cases is symmetrically determined according to the feasibility grades and misclassification errors are partially minimized by the multiple grades. However, the horizon of grade level can be changed by firms' NPD strategy. Our proposed feasibility grade method is more reasonable in NPD decision problems by considering particularly risk factor of NPD in viewpoints of future NPD success probability. In our empirical study using Korean NPD cases, the SVM significantly outperformed ANN and logistic regression as benchmark models in hit ratio. And the feasibility grades generated from the predicted output value of SVM showed that they can offer a useful guideline for NPD project selection.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.1-28
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• 2018

With the growing number of emerging carmakers, automotive parts manufacturers have to penetrate into emerging markets. They can provide large existing carmakers with fully customized parts because of economies scale, but cannot do this for small emerging carmakers due to their small and highly volatile volume order. Once the order by an emerging carmaker is placed, a part manufacturer is exposed to high risks both of decrease in profit margin and high opportunity cost. The platform-based mass customization can be a solution for cost reduction, but the risks of volatility in volume hard to manage. Tackling this issue, we presents a method of optimizing the product portfolio to maximize profits while managing volatility of volume order by emerging carmakers at an affordable level. It is the first robust product portfolio method to keep the scaled deviation of profits at a fixed level under volume order uncertainty. Also, the effect of on the platform-based mass customization on cost is considered. This model can be a building block of conservative market penetration as well as product development strategy while minimizing the financial risks. We conducted an empirical study of a part manufacturer targeting on eighteen automobile manufacturers in North America, Europe and Asia with it powered lift gate.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.165-174
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• 2023

This study analyzed the purchase status of athleisure wear and consumers' dissatisfaction with online shopping post-COVID-19. The target population comprised female consumers in their 20s to 50s who are interested in exercise and fashion. The study investigated differences according to age. It was found that athleisure wear was purchased once every two to three months and used as sportswear and/or daily wear. Purchase information was obtained via the Internet, and purchases were made online. Design, price, wear sensation, and textiles were the most important selection criteria, and T-shirts and leggings were the most frequently purchased garments. Additionally, textile characteristics such as moisture-absorbing and quick-drying as well as elasticity were evaluated as important. Online shopping of athleisure wear has increased since COVID-19 due to the time savings, low price, opportunity to compare several products, and delivery convenience. However, consumers were dissatisfied due to the differences between the screen image and the actual product, the inconvenience of returns, exchanges, and refunds, the lack of product information, product quality, and delivery. Furthermore, it was found that pursuing value of athleisure wear differed according to age. Consumers in their 20s and 30s required athleisure wear with the characteristics of sportswear and daily or urban wear and those in their 40s and 50s required garments with good performance as sportswear. Based on consumer feedback, it is necessary for manufacturers to provide product information that can improve product reliability.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.239-248
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• 2010

This paper describes a collaborative project between academia and industry which focused on improving the marketing and product development strategies for two private label apparel brands of a large regional department store chain in the southeastern United States. The goal of the project was to revitalize product lines of the two brands by incorporating student ideas for new solutions, thereby giving the students practical experience with a real-life industry situation. There were a number of key players involved in the project. A privately-owned department store chain based in the southeastern United States which was seeking an academic partner had recognized a need to update two existing private label brands. They targeted middle-aged consumers looking for casual, moderately priced merchandise. The company was seeking to change direction with both packaging and presentation, and possibly product design. The branding and product development divisions of the company contacted professors in an academic department of a large southeastern state university. Two of the professors agreed that the task would be a good fit for their classes - one was a junior-level Intermediate Brand Management class; the other was a senior-level Fashion Product Development class. The professors felt that by working collaboratively on the project, students would be exposed to a real world scenario, within the security of an academic learning environment. Collaboration within an interdisciplinary team has the advantage of providing experiences and resources beyond the capabilities of a single student and adds "brainpower" to problem-solving processes (Lowman 2000). This goal of improving the capabilities of students directed the instructors in each class to form interdisciplinary teams between the Branding and Product Development classes. In addition, many universities are employing industry partnerships in research and teaching, where collaboration within temporal (semester) and physical (classroom/lab) constraints help to increase students' knowledge and experience of a real-world situation. At the University of Tennessee, the Center of Industrial Services and UT-Knoxville's College of Engineering worked with a company to develop design improvements in its U.S. operations. In this study, Because should be lower case b with a private label retail brand, Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst's (1999) revised Retail Apparel Product Development Model was used by the product development and brand management teams. This framework was chosen because it addresses apparel product development from the concept to the retail stage. Two classes were involved in this project: a junior level Brand Management class and a senior level Fashion Product Development class. Seven teams were formed which included four students from Brand Management and two students from Product Development. The classes were taught the same semester, but not at the same time. At the beginning of the semester, each class was introduced to the industry partner and given the problem. Half the teams were assigned to the men's brand and half to the women's brand. The teams were responsible for devising approaches to the problem, formulating a timeline for their work, staying in touch with industry representatives and making sure that each member of the team contributed in a positive way. The objective for the teams was to plan, develop, and present a product line using merchandising processes (following the Wickett, Gaskill and Damhorst model) and develop new branding strategies for the proposed lines. The teams performed trend, color, fabrication and target market research; developed sketches for a line; edited the sketches and presented their line plans; wrote specifications; fitted prototypes on fit models, and developed final production samples for presentation to industry. The branding students developed a SWOT analysis, a Brand Measurement report, a mind-map for the brands and a fully integrated Marketing Report which was presented alongside the ideas for the new lines. In future if the opportunity arises to work in this collaborative way with an existing company who wishes to look both at branding and product development strategies, classes will be scheduled at the same time so that students have more time to meet and discuss timelines and assigned tasks. As it was, student groups had to meet outside of each class time and this proved to be a challenging though not uncommon part of teamwork (Pfaff and Huddleston, 2003). Although the logistics of this exercise were time-consuming to set up and administer, professors felt that the benefits to students were multiple. The most important benefit, according to student feedback from both classes, was the opportunity to work with industry professionals, follow their process, and see the results of their work evaluated by the people who made the decisions at the company level. Faculty members were grateful to have a "real-world" case to work with in the classroom to provide focus. Creative ideas and strategies were traded as plans were made, extending and strengthening the departmental links be tween the branding and product development areas. By working not only with students coming from a different knowledge base, but also having to keep in contact with the industry partner and follow the framework and timeline of industry practice, student teams were challenged to produce excellent and innovative work under new circumstances. Working on the product development and branding for "real-life" brands that are struggling gave students an opportunity to see how closely their coursework ties in with the real-world and how creativity, collaboration and flexibility are necessary components of both the design and business aspects of company operations. Industry personnel were impressed by (a) the level and depth of knowledge and execution in the student projects, and (b) the creativity of new ideas for the brands.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.31-38
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• 2005

Consumer perception evaluation depending on the game genre affects many parts of the corporate management including market share, gaining new consumer, maintaining consumer and competition. If consumer perceives a company and a product as bad image, gaining new consumer would be no more available, and enormous amount of time would have to be spent to recover from that bad image. However game companies tend to simply keep spontaneous marketing strategy with the enforcing marketing. Its results will be the short-term success sacrificing the long-term marketing opportunity In order to increase sales and market share, the consumer perception evaluation as well as evaluating the game product and the corporate image is necessary. This article gives emphasis on the general game analysis and formulating strategy in the general game genre rather than a certain corporation and a product. Analyzing a particular product, company, platform and nation is necessary and will be followed subsequently.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.80-87
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• 2015

The proliferation of the Internet and communication technologies and applications, besides the conventional retailers, has led to a new form of distribution channel, namely home sopping through the telephone, TV, catalog or the Internet. The conventional and new distribution channels have different transaction costs perceived by the consumers in the following perspectives: the accessibility to the product information, the traffic cost and the opportunity cost for the time to visit the store, the possibility of 'touch and feel' to test the quality of the product, the delivery time and the concern for the security for the personal information. Difference in the transaction costs between the distribution channels results in the different selling prices even for the same product. Moreover, distribution channels with different selling prices necessarily result in different business surpluses. In this paper, we study the multilateral bargaining strategy of a manufacturer who sells a product through multiple distribution channels with different transaction costs. We first derive the Nash equilibrium solutions for both simultaneous and sequential bargaining games. The numerical analyses for the Nash equilibrium solutions show that the optimal bargaining strategy of the manufacturer heavily depends not only on the degree of competition between the distribution channels but on the difference of the business surpluses of the distribution channels. First, it is shown that there can be four types of locally optimal bargaining strategies if we assume the market powers of the manufacturer over the distribution channels can be different. It is also shown that, among the four local optimal bargaining strategies, simultaneous bargaining with the distribution channels is the most preferred bargaining strategy for the manufacturer.

• Environmental Analysis Health and Toxicology
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• v.31
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• pp.15.1-15.6
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• 2016

A number of absurdities surrounding the humidifier disinfectant (HD) incident may have occurred because 1) a judicial system operates on the underlying false assumption that the involved parties are equals in knowledge, information and resource mobilization capabilities, regardless of respective real status as company or individual; 2) there is a lack of a system that mandates a company to prevent and actively manage possible catastrophes; 3) the regulatory scheme makes companies believe that as long as they are complying with the existing regulations, they have satisfied all of their responsibilities. I believe that this issue is an opportunity to bring about changes in the judicial redress system, the system of internal management of manufacturers, and the regulatory system of the government. The following regulation amendments are needed to move towards the changes stated above. First, legislation relating to victim relief that is applicable to the HD incident must be established. Second, a risk management system must be formed within the manufacturing company and to this end an institutional environment for the system must be established within regulatory framework. Furthermore, legislation must be passed that could punish companies themselves that have caused severe damage to individuals because they had failed to take necessary actions to avoid foreseeable harm. Finally, the framework of regulation must be changed so that the company, who has the necessary information regarding the product and the component chemicals used in the product, must self-directed experiment and assessment of the safety of their own products.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.73-87
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• 2015

The development of a practical technology intelligence system requires a knowledge base that structures the core information and its relationship distilled from large volumes of technical data. Previous studies have mainly focused on the methodological approaches for technology opportunities, while little attention has been paid to constructing a practical knowledge base. Therefore, this study proposes a procedure to construct a function-based knowledge base for technology intelligence. We define the product-function-technology relationship and subsequently present the detailed steps for the knowledge base construction. The knowledge base, which is constructed analyzing 1110582 patents between 2009 and 2013 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office database, contains the functional knowledge of products and technologies and the relationship between products and technologies. This study is the first attempt to develop a large-scale knowledge base using the concept of function and has the ability to serve as a basis not only for furthering technology opportunity analysis methods but also for developing practical technology intelligence systems.