This paper is the first part of a project that will examine the role of MNCs in the transfer of FMS technology. The paper is the result of a hypotheses generating phase conducted largely through a literature review. Multinational corporations (MNCs) are the principal agents of international...

We present a sufficient condition for a feedback Stackelberg equilibrium of a stochastic differential game on an infinite horizon. This condition gives rise to a system of elliptic partial differential equations involving a static Stackelberg game at the level of Lagrangian. As an example, we...

For most multi-period decision-making problems, it is generally well-accepted that the influence of information about later periods on the optimal decision in the current period reduces as we move farther into the future. If and when this influence reduces to zero, the corresponding problem...

We consider a production-inventory planning problem with time-varying demands, convex production costs and a warehouse capacity constraint. It is solved by use of the Lagrangian form of the maximum principle. The possible existence of strong decision and forecast horizons is demonstrated. When...

The paper is concerned with the reduction of a class of stochastic optimal control problems to simpler problems by using decomposition and aggregation. Decomposition is shown to provide a good approximation when the system dynamics involve nearly decomposable matrices or variables with strong...

This paper describes a maximum principle for distributed parameter systems, i.e. systems characterized by partial differential equations. The maximum principle is applied to solve the problem of a cattle rancher who must decide the number of cattle in different age groups to be bought and sold...

This paper constructs a unified framework to survey most of the work done to date on decision and forecast horizons in a stochastic environment. The paper is divided into sections by type of model. For each model type, the issues of existence of these horizons and of derivation of sufficient...

This paper presents an extension of earlier research on heirarchical control of stochastic manufacturing systems with linear production costs. A new method is introduced to construct asymptotically optimal open-loop and feedback controls for manufacturing systems in which the rates of machine...

This paper considers a production-inventory problem in which the manufacturer participates in an energy buy-back program, which offers him probabilistic opportunities with rewards for not using electricity. That is, the manufacturer will get paid for stopping production to save on electricity....