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SSRN Research Paper Series
The Social Science Research Network’s Research Paper Series includes working papers produced by Stanford GSB the Rock Center.
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An Empirical Analysis of Software and Hardware Spending
The growth in information systems budgets and in their primary components, hardware and software effort, are analyzed empirically. It is demonstrated that while a large component of the growth is due to technology related factors, these…
On Manufacturing/Marketing Incentives
Stereotypically, marketing is mainly concerned about satisfying customers and manufacturing is mainly interested in factory efficiency. Using the principal-agent (agency) paradigm, which assumes that the marketing and manufacturing managers of…
Re-organization as a Response to the Market: Analysis of the Disintegration of American Film Production in the Post-war Period
Abstract not available.
Myopic Replenishment Policies for Inventory Models with History-Dependent Demand Distributions
This paper considers single-item, periodic review inventory systems with linear procurement, holding and shortage costs, and immediate delivery. Immediate stock disposal with a linear disposal fee may or may not be an option. The demand in each…
Post-Entry Pricing and Vertical Integration in the Chemical Process Industries
This paper examines the magnitude of price changes following entry into markets for 30 undifferentiated chemical products. On average, prices fell by about 6% in years when entry occurred. Price cuts were roughly twice as deep when the entrant…
Computationally Feasible Bounds For Partially Observed Markov Decision Processes
A partially observed Markov decision process (POMDP) is a sequential decision problem where information concerning parameters of interest is incomplete, and possible actions include sampling, surveying, or otherwise collecting additional…
Is Negative Voting an Artifact?
Negative voting occurs when voters respond more strongly to political actions or outcomes they oppose than to comparable actions or outcomes they favor. This paper discusses the possibility that negative voting is an artifact. We develop a simple…
A Note on Exact Solution of Partially Observed Markov Decision Processes
This note points out an error in the only published algorithm for exactsolution of partially observed Markov decision processes. The major insights and contributions of the original work remain intact, and the error can be remedied, albeit at…
Optimal Inspection, Lot Sizing and Setup Reduction
Porteus, and Rosenblatt and Lee have recently developed models in which process quality and lot sizing interact. Lot sizes should be reduced to compensate for poor quality. Investment in setup time reduction leads to even smaller lot sizes and…
Leadership Measure of Stanford MBAs
While in school, Stanford MBA students were given a test battery chosen to predict managerial potential. This battery included several instruments that attempt to measure leadership, Leadership Opinion questionnaire, McClelland’s Test of…
Successive Myopic Approximations for Capacity Expansion Problems
A capacity expansion problem is one of choosing the timing, location, and sizing of productive capacity to respond to demand forecasts at minimum cost. Capacity expansion models for realistic problems tend to be too large for present methods that…
The Effect of Stochasticity on Optimal Harvesting Strategies in Some Lumped-Parameter Fishery Models
This paper introduces some methods for anticipating the difference between optimal harvesting strategies in a fishery model with stochastic recruitment and for the analogous deterministic model with recruitment equal to its expected value. The…
Attributes of Successful MBAs: A Twenty-Year Longitudinal Study
Are attributes of successful MBAs useful for predicting success, and thereby improving business management? In a twenty-year study of Stanford MBAs, 15 and 20 year results have identified the extreme importance to success of sociability. The…
Dual Career Couples: Anxiety of MBA Couples Compared with Traditional Couples
The anxiety of members of dual career couples was compared with that of more traditional couples where only the husband worked outside the home. MBA husbands with children whose MBA wives were also employed outside the home showed more anxiety.…
Lincoln's Leadership: Excellence in War Management
Lincoln’s management of the Civil War used so many of the principles described by Peters and Waterman (1982) in their best selling book, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run Companies, that we have attempted to analyze Lincoln…
Strategic Decision Processes in High Velocity Environments: Four Cases in the Microcomputer Industry
Abstract not available.
Stanford MBA Careers: A 20 Year Longitudinal Study
Our 20 year studies find that MBAs are happy, prosperous, and are moving from large to small business. On average they are either very Satisfied , or Satisfied with their jobs. Their median earnings at 20 years out in 1981, 1982, and 1983,…
Undiscounted Approximations of Discounted Regenerative Models
This paper approximates the discounted average cost in regenerative models by an undiscounted average cost. A financial holding cost is assessed on expenditures that are incurred earlier than the middle of each cycle. Explicit upper and lower…
Accrual Mobility: Job Mobility in Higher Education Through Responsibility Accrual
No abstract available.