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1 – 10 of over 78000Rajesh Karunamurthy, Ferhat Khendek and Roch H. Glitho
A web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine‐to‐machine or application‐to‐application interactions over networks. Descriptions enable web services…
Abstract
Purpose
A web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine‐to‐machine or application‐to‐application interactions over networks. Descriptions enable web services to be discovered, used by other web services, and composed into new web services. Web service composition is a mechanism for creating new web services by reusing existing ones. In order to compose a web service, the right primitive services have to be discovered. A matchmaking technique enables discovering these services. Web services have functional, non‐functional, behavioral, and semantic characteristics. These four aspects of web services provide different key information about the service; therefore they have to be considered for description, matching, and composition. The purpose of this paper is to propose a formal description framework and a formal matchmaking technique that allows describing and discovering web services by considering their four characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the description framework combines two existing languages for functional, semantic, and behavioral description, along with a simple and new language for non‐functional description.
Findings
A case study is used to illustrate the description framework and the matchmaking technique. The implementation and performance evaluation of the matchmaking technique is presented. The framework formalizes and integrates the languages in a common semantic domain in order to match and manipulate the different aspects together and formally. Isabelle is used by the matchmaking technique for discovering the partially and fully matched services.
Originality/value
The contribution of this paper lies in the new description framework and the new matchmaking technique.
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Federico Barravecchia, Fiorenzo Franceschini and Luca Mastrogiacomo
Service matching is defined in this paper as the process of combining a new service with one or more existing services. A recurring problem for service designer is to match new…
Abstract
Purpose
Service matching is defined in this paper as the process of combining a new service with one or more existing services. A recurring problem for service designer is to match new services with existing ones. This process may be seen as the fundamental action for the development of a service network. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the consequences that may follow from service matching.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an analogy with living organisms in natural ecosystems, the service relationship deployment (SRD) allows the investigation of the possible relationships between matched services.
Findings
This paper presents a new method, named SRD, developed to support the process of service matching in the early design phases of a new service. The description of the method is supported by some practical examples.
Originality/value
The focus of the scientific community on the problem of matching new services with existing ones, is very limited. This paper proposes a new methodology to address this issue.
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Wenyu Chen, Zhongquan Zhang, Tao Xiang and Ru Zeng
The purpose of this paper is to obtain more accurate matching between the request and the release of web service.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to obtain more accurate matching between the request and the release of web service.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts Levenshtein distance algorithm to calculate the name similarity between publishing service and request service, employs cosine theorem to compute the text similarity, and uses semantic distance to count the input‐output similarity, then filters out the low similarity and bad reputation services to structure the candidate service set.
Findings
The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the scheme is given in this paper. The experimental results show that the multi‐level matching filtering algorithm can obviously improve the recall ratio and precision ratio of web service discovery.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a similarity‐based filtering algorithm for multi‐level matching.
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The purpose of this paper is to outline the conditions for a new service system in healthcare, which will be able to match the available capacity in and between healthcare units…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the conditions for a new service system in healthcare, which will be able to match the available capacity in and between healthcare units, in order to match the need of care for the patients.
Design/methodology/approach
By drawing on statements from patients, experiences from similar services (a literature review), empirical research into the effects of the reforms on free choice and the care guarantee and a theoretically informed discussion drawing on value‐creation and service productivity, it is claimed that a matching system is needed to be developed.
Findings
As healthcare lacks incentives and structures of matching capacity between various care providers, and for coordinating episodes of care for the patient, the result is management of capacity that is difficult and uncertain for patients. Continuity and coordination during all the healthcare process are seen as important values by patients. It is valuable for patients to be matched in the coordination of contacts with providers and specialists.
Practical implications
Healthcare matching generates the supportive data for innovative service research. For management, it could be applicable in different organisational areas, for patients in their choices of provider and for the providers, when matching the needs for patients. In further research, it would be of value to discuss the barriers of matching.
Originality/value
Outlining the conditions for a service system, healthcare matching, has not been done before.
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Ayomi Bandara, Terry Payne, David De Roure, Nicholas Gibbins and Tim Lewis
There has been an increased interest in the use of semantic description and matching techniques, to support service discovery and to overcome the limitations in the traditional…
Abstract
Purpose
There has been an increased interest in the use of semantic description and matching techniques, to support service discovery and to overcome the limitations in the traditional syntactic approaches. However, the existing semantic matching approaches lack certain desirable properties that must be present in an effective solution to support service discovery. The purpose of this paper is to present a solution to facilitate the effective semantic matching of resource requests and advertisements in pervasive environments.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a semantic description and matching approach to facilitate resource discovery in pervasive environments; the approach includes a ranking mechanism that orders services according to their suitability and also considers priorities placed on individual requirements in a request.
Findings
The solution has been evaluated for its effectiveness and the results have shown that the matcher results agree reasonably well with human judgement. The solution was also evaluated for its efficiency/scalability and from the experimental results obtained, it can be observed that for most practical situations, matching time can be considered acceptable for reasonable numbers of advertisements and request sizes.
Originality/value
The proposed approach improves existing semantic matching solutions in several key aspects. Specifically; it presents an effective approximate matching and ranking criterion and incorporates priority consideration in the matching process. As shown in the evaluation experiments, these features significantly improve the effectiveness of semantic matching.
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Xuejiao Zhang, Yu Yang and Jing Wang
This paper aims to develop a dynamic two-sided stable matching method based on preference information of the matching objects in uncertain environments, so as to solve the matching…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a dynamic two-sided stable matching method based on preference information of the matching objects in uncertain environments, so as to solve the matching problem of cloud manufacturing tasks and services with load balancing.
Design/methodology/approach
For dynamic two-sided matching, due to the complexity of social environment and the limitation of human cognition, hesitation and fuzziness always exist in the process of multi-criteria assessment. First, in order to obtain the accurate preference information of each matching object, uncertain linguistic variables, uncertain preference ordinal and incomplete complementary matrices are used to evaluate multi-criteria preference information. This process is undertaken by considering the probability of each possible matching pair. Second, the preference information at different times is integrated by using the time-series weight to obtain the comprehensive satisfaction degree matrices of the matching objects. Further, the load adjustment parameter is used to increase the satisfaction degree of the matching objects. Afterward, a dynamic two-sided stable matching optimization model is constructed by considering stable matching conditions. The model aims to maximize the satisfaction degree and minimizes the difference in the satisfaction degree of matching objects. The optimal stable matching results can be obtained by solving the optimization model. Finally, a numerical example and comparative analysis are presented to demonstrate the characteristics of the proposed method.
Findings
Uncertain linguistic variables, uncertain preference orders and incomplete complementary matrices are used to describe multi-criteria preference information of the matching objects in uncertain environments. A dynamic two-sided stable matching method is proposed, based on which a DTSMDM (dynamic two-sided matching decision-making) model of cloud manufacturing with load balancing can be constructed. The study proved that the authors can use the proposed method to obtain stable matching pairs and higher matching objective value through comparative analysis and the sensitivity analysis.
Originality/value
A new method for the two-sided matching decision-making problem of cloud manufacturing with load balancing is proposed in this paper, which allows the matching objects to elicit language evaluation under uncertain environment more flexibly to implement dynamic two-sided matching based on preference information at different times. This method is suitable for dealing with a variety of TSMDM (two-sided matching decision-making) problems.
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Aihui Chen, Ying Yu and Yaobin Lu
The peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation-sharing market has developed rapidly on the strength of information technology in recent years. Matching providers and customers in an…
Abstract
Purpose
The peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation-sharing market has developed rapidly on the strength of information technology in recent years. Matching providers and customers in an information technology (IT)-enabled platform is a key determinant of both parties' experiences and the healthy development of the platform. However, previous research has not sufficiently explained the mechanism of provider–customer matching in accommodation sharing, especially at the psychological level. Based on field cognitive style theory, this study examines how the match and mismatch affect customers' online and offline satisfaction and whether a significant difference exists between online and offline satisfaction under different matching patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test the proposed theoretical model using 122 provider–customer dyad data collected through a field study.
Findings
The results suggest that customers' online and offline satisfaction under match is significantly higher than that under mismatch. In addition, customers' online satisfaction is significantly higher than their offline satisfaction under mismatch, but there is no significant difference between the two under match. The perceived price fairness also plays a moderating role in the case of mismatch.
Originality/value
In summary, these findings provide a novel understanding about the matching patterns and their outcomes in the accommodation-sharing context and expand the contents and applications of field cognitive style theory and matching theory. This study will help these IT-enabled platforms to provide personalized matching services at the psychological level, thereby enhancing user experience and corporate competitiveness. 10; 10;
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Fuli Zhou, Yandong He, Panpan Ma and Raj V. Mahto
The booming of the Internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques contributes to knowledge adoption and management innovation for the healthcare industry. It…
Abstract
Purpose
The booming of the Internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques contributes to knowledge adoption and management innovation for the healthcare industry. It is of great significance to transport the medical resources to required places in an efficient way. However, it is difficult to exactly discover matched transportation resources and deliver to its destination due to the heterogeneity. This paper studies the medical transportation resource discovery mechanism, leading to efficiency improvement and operational innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
To solve the transportation resource semantic discovery problem under the novel cloud environment, the ontology modelling approach is used for both transportation resources and tasks information modes. Besides, medical transportation resource discovery mechanism is proposed, and resource matching rules are designed including three stages: filtering reasoning, QoS-based matching and user preferences-based rank to satisfy personalized demands of users. Furthermore, description logic rules are built to express the developed matching rules.
Findings
An organizational transportation case is taken as an example to describe the medical transportation logistics resource semantic discovery process under cloud medical service scenario. Results derived from the proposed semantic discovery mechanism could assist operators to find the most suitable resources.
Research limitations/implications
The case study validates the effectiveness of the developed transportation resource semantic discovery mechanism, contributing to knowledge management innovation for the medical logistics industry.
Originality/value
To improve task-resource matching accuracy under cloud scenario, this study develops a transportation resource semantic discovery procedure from the viewpoint of knowledge management. The novel knowledge management practice contributes to operational management of the cloud medical logistics service by introducing ontology modelling and creative management.
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Krista Hill Cummings and Jennifer A. Yule
This study aims to propose that providers should tailor recovery responses to consumers’ emotional states to improve evaluations and behavioral intentions.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to propose that providers should tailor recovery responses to consumers’ emotional states to improve evaluations and behavioral intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-study approach comprising field and lab data was used. The field study, conducted on the Boston public transport network during a weather crisis, sought to determine how a provider should deliver their recovery response to match the consumer’s affective state. In the lab studies, the importance of tailoring a recovery message to the consumer’s state is experimentally demonstrated while controlling for factors such as consumer brand involvement.
Findings
This study finds that an emotion-focused recovery emphasizing empathy should be given to those in an avoidance affective state (i.e. focused on the avoidance of negative outcomes) such as worry. A problem-focused recovery, in which the focus is on the process that led to the failure and the steps that will be taken to correct it, should be provided to those in an approach state (i.e. concerned with advancement and accomplishment) such as anger. This study also finds this effect is more salient under low involvement conditions.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should examine how nonverbal behavior during recovery can be tailored to a consumer’s state.
Practical implications
Service providers are encouraged to tailor recovery messages to consumers’ affective states.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine matching recovery messages to affective states, an important contribution as service failures can elicit a wide variety of affective states that influence how consumers react to recovery messages.
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Yun Liu, Xingyuan Wang and Heyu Qin
This paper aims to explore the matching effect of hospitality brand image (cool vs non-cool) and service agents (Artificial intelligence [AI] vs human staff) on brand attitude…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the matching effect of hospitality brand image (cool vs non-cool) and service agents (Artificial intelligence [AI] vs human staff) on brand attitude, with a focus on assessing the role of feeling right as a mediator and service failure as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper tested the hypotheses through three experiments and a Supplementary Material experiment, which collectively involved 835 participants.
Findings
The results indicated that the adoption of AI by cool brands can foster the right feeling and enhance consumers’ positive brand attitudes. In contrast, employing human staff did not lead to improved brand attitudes toward non-cool brands. Furthermore, the study found that service failure moderated the matching effect between service agents and cool brand images on brand attitude. The matching effect was observed under successful service conditions, but it disappeared when service failure occurred.
Practical implications
The findings offer practical guidance for hospitality companies in choosing service agents based on brand image. Cool brands can swiftly transition to AI, reinforcing their modern, cutting-edge image. Traditional brands may delay AI adoption or integrate it strategically with human staff.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper represents one of the first studies to address the issue of selecting the optimal service agent based on hospitality brand image. More importantly, it introduces the concept of a cool hospitality brand image as a boundary condition in the framework of AI research, providing novel insights into consumers’ ambivalent responses to AI observed in previous studies.
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