This paper presents an original description and a semi-formal definition of the concept of a value proposition, which has been so far used in service science rather intuitively. Our approach is based on utility functions and conceptual modelling techniques. The proposed semi-formalization can be...

A method of small-area estimation with a utility function is developed. The utility characterises a policy planned to be implemented in each area, based on the area's estimate of a key quantity. It is shown by simulations that the commonly applied composite and empirical Bayes estimators are...