Scope and Purpose – For solving combinatorial optimization problems, neural networks have traditionally been outperformed by traditional heuristic techniques developed specifically for the problem in question. This research is a step toward integrating the problem specific knowledge embedded...

Advances in telecommunications and E-business technologies are enabling rapidly changing firm boundaries and large-scale reorganization of business processes. Business processes consist increasingly of information that is, or can be, digitized and transmitted from and to virtually anywhere in...

Reverse distribution, or the management of product return flows, induced by various forms of reuse of products and materials, has received growing attention throughout this decade. In this paper we discuss reverse distribution, and propose a mathematical programming model for a version of this...

Based on literature review, we derive a set of dimensions that influence patient-perceived health care quality. Utilizing outpatient survey data from 222 different physicians, we identified six underlying quality factors and classified them according to the derived dimensions. These quality...

The theory of incomplete contracts has been used to study the relationship between buyers and suppliers following the deployment of modern information technology to facilitate coordination between them. Previous research has sought to explain anecdotal evidence from some industries on the recent...

The quality of service which could be delivered by the U.S. healthcare system is in contrast with the customer’s perceived expectations and reported levels of satisfaction. Due to the uncertainty about stakeholder views and the anomaly of the third-party payment system, healthcare service...

Recently, Nature published an article comparing the quality of Wikipedia articles to those of Encyclopedia Britannica (Giles 2005). The article, which gained much public attention, provides evidence for Wikipedia quality, but does not provide an explanation of the underlying source of that...

Since 1996, several major free ISP services have been founded in the US and elsewhere, including Spinway, Inc. Spinway's services were offered primarily through, and under the name of, large consumer companies such as Yahoo!, KMart, Costco, Spiegel, Barnes & Noble, Ace Hardware, and NBC among...