This paper examines a market where the provision of information service is costly, but information service has the characteristics of a public good. Consumers, on the other hand, can use the information service to make an informed purchase decision and derive higher utility from consuming their...

Recently user-oriented online sharing communities have seen explosive growth. Two characteristics of these communities set them apart from traditional online message-based communities such as online forums. First, users have no social ties before joining the community. Second, there is little or...

Online peer-to-peer communities and online social networks have become increasingly popular. In particular, the recent boost of online peer-to-peer communities leads to exponential growth in sharing of user-contributed content which have brought profound changes to business and economic...

Consumers' average value for information goods, websites, weather forecasts, music, and news declines with the number consumed. This paper provides simple guidelines to optimal bundling marketing strategies in this case. If consumers' values do not decrease too quickly, we show that bundling is...

This paper provides a theory of rationing where rationing functions as an effective mechanism for second degree price discrimination by a monopoly seller. When a seller charges multiple prices on homogenous products to all consumers, supply at the lowest price is limited and rationed among...

This paper concerns coordination of enterprise decisions such as suppliers and components selection, pricing and inventory in a multi-level supply chain composed of multiple suppliers, a single manufacturer and multiple retailers. The problem is modeled as a three-level dynamic non-cooperative...

Interdisciplinary teams are assembled in scientific research and are aimed at solving complex problems. Given their increasing importance, it is not surprising that considerable attention has been focused on processes of collaboration in interdisciplinary teams. Despite such efforts, we know...

To improve the lipid accumulation of diatom cells, Nitzschia sp. was mutated by 60Co-γ-ray irradiation and cultivated with high salinity. The biomass and lipid yields of Nitzschia sp. mutated by 60Co-γ-ray irradiation at 900 Gy were increased by 53.8% and 28.1%, respectively. The lipid...

This paper concerns heat exchange devices with a zigzag configuration containing multi-phase change materials (m-PCMs). A two dimensional mathematical model was established to model the charging behaviour. An experimental system was built to validate the model. The modelling results agree...