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1 – 10 of 755Simone Guercini and Susan Maria Freeman
The paper addresses the following research question: how do decision-makers use heuristics in their international business (IB) environment? Whereas, the literature has focused on…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper addresses the following research question: how do decision-makers use heuristics in their international business (IB) environment? Whereas, the literature has focused on entrepreneurial companies, here contrasting approaches to learning and using heuristics in international marketing (IM) decisions are examined and discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper aims to address a gap in the study of micro-foundations of internationalization, exploiting research from other disciplinary fields. It combines a multidisciplinary literature review and longitudinal case studies to illustrate different approaches in learning and using heuristics by international marketers.
Findings
International marketers can adopt “closed” heuristics that are consolidated and consistently followed, or “open” heuristics, which are constantly being adapted and learned. Established multinationals learn heuristics in international marketing decision-making, following both “closed” and “open” models.
Originality/value
This paper offers an original contribution by presenting different approaches not yet examined in the literature, focusing on how international marketers make decisions through learning and using heuristic rules. The focus is on established exporters, in contrast to the literature that has largely paid attention to the effectiveness of heuristics in new entrepreneurial firms.
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Tao Peng, Xingliang Liu, Rui Fang, Ronghui Zhang, Yanwei Pang, Tao Wang and Yike Tong
This study aims to develop an automatic lane-change mechanism on highways for self-driving articulated trucks to improve traffic safety.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop an automatic lane-change mechanism on highways for self-driving articulated trucks to improve traffic safety.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors proposed a novel safety lane-change path planning and tracking control method for articulated vehicles. A double-Gaussian distribution was introduced to deduce the lane-change trajectories of tractor and trailer coupling characteristics of intelligent vehicles and roads. With different steering and braking maneuvers, minimum safe distances were modeled and calculated. Considering safety and ergonomics, the authors invested multilevel self-driving modes that serve as the basis of decision-making for vehicle lane-change. Furthermore, a combined controller was designed by feedback linearization and single-point preview optimization to ensure the path tracking and robust stability. Specialized hardware in the loop simulation platform was built to verify the effectiveness of the designed method.
Findings
The numerical simulation results demonstrated the path-planning model feasibility and controller-combined decision mechanism effectiveness to self-driving trucks. The proposed trajectory model could provide safety lane-change path planning, and the designed controller could ensure good tracking and robust stability for the closed-loop nonlinear system.
Originality/value
This is a fundamental research of intelligent local path planning and automatic control for articulated vehicles. There are two main contributions: the first is a more quantifiable trajectory model for self-driving articulated vehicles, which provides the opportunity to adapt vehicle and scene changes. The second involves designing a feedback linearization controller, combined with a multi-objective decision-making mode, to improve the comprehensive performance of intelligent vehicles. This study provides a valuable reference to develop advanced driving assistant system and intelligent control systems for self-driving articulated vehicles.
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Dave C. Longhorn and John Dale Stobbs
This paper aims to propose two solution approaches to determine the number of ground transport vehicles that are required to ensure the on-time delivery of military equipment…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose two solution approaches to determine the number of ground transport vehicles that are required to ensure the on-time delivery of military equipment between origin and destination node pairs in some geographic region, which is an important logistics problem at the US Transportation Command.
Design/methodology/approach
The author uses a mathematical program and a traditional heuristic to provide optimal and near-optimal solutions, respectively. The author also compares the approaches for random, small-scale problems to assess the quality and computational efficiency of the heuristic solution, and also uses the heuristic to solve a notional, large-scale problem typical of real problems.
Findings
This work helps analysts identify how many ground transport vehicles are needed to meet cargo delivery requirements in any military theater of operation.
Research limitations/implications
This research assumes all problem data is deterministic, so it does not capture variations in requirements or transit times between nodes.
Practical implications
This work provides prescriptive details to military analysts and decision-makers in a timely manner. Prior to this work, insights for this type of problem were generated using time-consuming simulation taking about a week and often involving trial-and-error.
Originality/value
This research provides new methods to solve an important logistics problem. The heuristic presented in this paper was recently used to provide operational insights about ground vehicle requirements to support a geographic combatant command and to inform decisions for railcar recapitalization within the US Army.
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Russell Nelson, Russell King, Brandon M. McConnell and Kristin Thoney-Barletta
The purpose of this study was to create an air movement operations planning model to rapidly generate air mission request (AMR) assignment and routing courses of action (COA) in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to create an air movement operations planning model to rapidly generate air mission request (AMR) assignment and routing courses of action (COA) in order to minimize unsupported AMRs, aircraft utilization and routing cost.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the US Army Aviation air movement operations planning problem is modeled as a mixed integer linear program (MILP) as an extension of the dial-a-ride problem (DARP). The paper also introduces a heuristic as an extension of a single-vehicle DARP demand insertion algorithm to generate feasible solutions in a tactically useful time period.
Findings
The MILP model generates optimal solutions for small problems (low numbers of AMRs and small helicopter fleets). The heuristic generates near-optimal feasible solutions for problems of various sizes (up to 100 AMRs and 10 helicopter team fleet size) in near real time.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the inability of the MILP to produce optimal solutions for mid- and large-sized problems, this research is limited in commenting on the heuristic solution quality beyond the numerical experimentation. Additionally, the authors make several simplifying assumptions to generalize the average performance and capabilities of aircraft throughout a flight.
Originality/value
This research is the first to solve the US Army Aviation air movement operations planning problem via a single formulation that incorporates multiple refuel nodes, minimization of unsupported demand by priority level, demand time windows, aircraft team utilization penalties, aircraft team time windows and maximum duration and passenger ride time limits.
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This paper proposes a theory-based process model for the generation, articulation, sharing and application of managerial heuristics, from their origin as unspoken insight, to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes a theory-based process model for the generation, articulation, sharing and application of managerial heuristics, from their origin as unspoken insight, to proverbialization, to formal or informal sharing, and to their adoption as optional guidelines or policy.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual paper is built using systematic and non-systematic review of literature. This paper employs a three-step approach to propose a process model for the emergence of managerial heuristics. Step one uses a systematic review of empirical studies on heuristics in order to map extant research on four key criteria and to obtain, by flicking through this sample in a moving-pictures style, the static stages of the process; step two adapts a knowledge management framework to yield the dynamic aspect; step three assembles these findings into a graphical process model and uses insights from literature to enrich its description and to synthesize four propositions.
Findings
The paper provides insights into how heuristics originate from experienced managers confronted with negative situations and are firstly expressed as an inequality with a threshold. Further articulation is done by proverbialization, refining and adapting. Sharing is done either in an informal way, through socialization, or in a formal way, through regular meetings. Soft adoption as guidelines is based on expert authority, while hard adoption as policy is based on hierarchical authority or on collective authority.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are theory-based, and the model must be empirically refined.
Practical implications
Practical advice for managers on how to develop and share their portfolio of heuristics makes this paper valuable for practitioners.
Originality/value
This study addresses the less-researched aspect of heuristics creation, transforms static insights from literature into a dynamic process model, and, in a blended-theory approach, considers insights from a distant, but relevant literature – paremiology (the science of proverbs).
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Dave C. Longhorn and Joshua R. Muckensturm
This paper aims to introduce a new mixed integer programming formulation and associated heuristic algorithm to solve the Military Nodal Capacity Problem, which is a type of supply…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce a new mixed integer programming formulation and associated heuristic algorithm to solve the Military Nodal Capacity Problem, which is a type of supply chain network design problem that involves determining the amount of capacity expansion required at theater nodes to ensure the on-time delivery of military cargo.
Design/methodology/approach
Supply chain network design, mixed integer programs, heuristics and regression are used in this paper.
Findings
This work helps analysts at the United States Transportation Command identify what levels of throughput capacities, such as daily processing rates of trucks and railcars, are needed at theater distribution nodes to meet warfighter cargo delivery requirements.
Research limitations/implications
This research assumes all problem data are deterministic, and so it does not capture the variations in cargo requirements, transit times or asset payloads.
Practical implications
This work gives military analysts and decision makers prescriptive details about nodal capacities needed to meet demands. Prior to this work, insights for this type of problem were generated using multiple time-consuming simulations often involving trial-and-error to explore the trade space.
Originality/value
This work merges research of supply chain network design with military theater distribution problems to prescribe the optimal, or near-optimal, throughput capacities at theater nodes. The capacity levels must meet delivery requirements while adhering to constraints on the proportion of cargo transported by mode and the expected payloads for assets.
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Joshua R. Muckensturm and Dave C. Longhorn
This paper introduces a new heuristic algorithm that aims to solve the military route vulnerability problem, which involves assessing the vulnerability of military cargo flowing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper introduces a new heuristic algorithm that aims to solve the military route vulnerability problem, which involves assessing the vulnerability of military cargo flowing over roads and railways subject to enemy interdiction.
Design/methodology/approach
Graph theory, a heuristic and a binary integer program are used in this paper.
Findings
This work allows transportation analysts at the United States Transportation Command to identify a relatively small number of roads or railways that, if interdicted by an enemy, could disrupt the flow of military cargo within any theater of operation.
Research limitations/implications
This research does not capture aspects of time, such as the reality that cargo requirements and enemy threats may fluctuate each day of the contingency.
Practical implications
This work provides military logistics planners and decision-makers with a vulnerability assessment of theater distribution routes, including insights into which specific roads and railways may require protection to ensure the successful delivery of cargo from ports of debarkation to final destinations.
Originality/value
This work merges network connectivity and flow characteristics with enemy threat assessments to identify militarily-useful roads and railways most vulnerable to enemy interdictions. A geographic combatant command recently used this specific research approach to support their request for rapid rail repair capability.
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Ali Cheaitou, Sadeque Hamdan and Rim Larbi
This paper aims to examine containership routing and speed optimization for maritime liner services. It focuses on a realistic case in which the transport demand, and consequently…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine containership routing and speed optimization for maritime liner services. It focuses on a realistic case in which the transport demand, and consequently the collected revenue from the visited ports depend on the sailing speed.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors present an integer non-linear programming model for the containership routing and fleet sizing problem, in which the sailing speed of every leg, the ports to be included in the service and their sequence are optimized based on the net line's profit. The authors present a heuristic approach that is based on speed discretization and a genetic algorithm to solve the problem for large size instances. They present an application on a line provided by COSCO in 2017 between Asia and Europe.
Findings
The numerical results show that the proposed heuristic approach provides good quality solutions after a reasonable computation time. In addition, the demand sensitivity has a great impact on the selected route and therefore the profit function. Moreover, the more the demand is sensitive to the sailing speed, the higher the sailing speed value.
Research limitations/implications
The vessel carrying capacity is not considered in an explicit way.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on an important aspect in liner shipping, i.e. demand sensitivity to sailing speed. It brings a novel approach that is important in a context in which sailing speed strategies and market volatility are to be considered together in network design. This perspective has not been addressed previously.
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Armin Mahmoodi, Leila Hashemi, Amin Mahmoodi, Benyamin Mahmoodi and Milad Jasemi
The proposed model has been aimed to predict stock market signals by designing an accurate model. In this sense, the stock market is analysed by the technical analysis of Japanese…
Abstract
Purpose
The proposed model has been aimed to predict stock market signals by designing an accurate model. In this sense, the stock market is analysed by the technical analysis of Japanese Candlestick, which is combined by the following meta heuristic algorithms: support vector machine (SVM), meta-heuristic algorithms, particle swarm optimization (PSO), imperialist competition algorithm (ICA) and genetic algorithm (GA).
Design/methodology/approach
In addition, among the developed algorithms, the most effective one is chosen to determine probable sell and buy signals. Moreover, the authors have proposed comparative results to validate the designed model in this study with the same basic models of three articles in the past. Hence, PSO is used as a classification method to search the solution space absolutelyand with the high speed of running. In terms of the second model, SVM and ICA are examined by the time. Where the ICA is an improver for the SVM parameters. Finally, in the third model, SVM and GA are studied, where GA acts as optimizer and feature selection agent.
Findings
Results have been indicated that, the prediction accuracy of all new models are high for only six days, however, with respect to the confusion matrixes results, it is understood that the SVM-GA and SVM-ICA models have correctly predicted more sell signals, and the SCM-PSO model has correctly predicted more buy signals. However, SVM-ICA has shown better performance than other models considering executing the implemented models.
Research limitations/implications
In this study, the authors to analyze the data the long length of time between the years 2013–2021, makes the input data analysis challenging. They must be changed with respect to the conditions.
Originality/value
In this study, two methods have been developed in a candlestick model, they are raw based and signal-based approaches which the hit rate is determined by the percentage of correct evaluations of the stock market for a 16-day period.
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