Summary This paper compares plural form chains, i.e., chains in which franchised units and company-owned units coexist, in terms of performance and more specifically in terms of efficiency, to predominantly franchised chains and predominantly company-owned ones. The data envelopment analysis...

Summary The increasing demand for real-time applications (video conferencing, Internet telephony--VoIP--etc.) delivered over Internet networks requires stringent Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. Internet traffic routing based on a Best-effort basis can hardly support these QoS requirements....