Double Mover–Stayer model on customer switching in telecommunications industry

Customer acquisition and customer retention are the most important challenges in the increasingly competitive telecommunications industry. Traditional studies of customer switching always assume that customers are homogeneous, and thus that model customer switching behavior follows a Markov formulation. However, this postulation is obviously inappropriate in most instances. Blumen et al. (Cornell Studies of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1955) developed the Mover–Stayer (MS) model, a generalization of the Markov chain model, to relax the requirement of homogeneity and allow the presence of heterogeneity with two different types of individuals—“stayers,” who purchase the same kinds of products or services throughout the entire observation period; and “movers,” who look for variety in products or services over time. There are two purpose of this article. First, we extend the MS model to a Double Mover‐Stayer (DMS) model by assuming the existence of three types of individuals in the market: (1) stable and loyal customers, who have stable usage within the same company; (2) instable but loyal customers, whose usage varies within the same company over time; and (3) disloyal customers, who switch from one company to another to seek for new experiences or/and benefits. We also propose an estimation method for the DMS model. Second, we apply the DMS model to telecommunications data and demonstrate how it can be used for pattern identification, hidden knowledge discovery, and decision making. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2012     

陆空火力协同仿真推演验证系统设计

针对陆空联合作战中火力协同方案制订、验证手段方法的不足,采用计算机仿真的方法,从安全防误伤的角度对陆空火力协同方案进行了仿真推演评估。分析了功能需求和体系结构,建立了武器装备运动轨迹模型和陆空火力协同安全性判别模型,研究了仿真时钟推进机制和提高仿真速度的方法,设计了陆空火力协同仿真推演验证系统。作战演习应用表明：该系统仿真推演验证快速、准确、便捷、有效。     

装备保障能力评价参数体系设计与应用

为了及时发现装备作战单元在装备保障建设中存在的问题并确定原因,研究了装备保障能力评价参数体系的构建。在剖析装备保障能力概念的基础上,将能力评价参数分为综合层、系统层、子系统层及资源层。从参数内容、评价对象层次以及时域3个维度设计了评价参数体系框架,并据此对4个层次参数的选取及其关系分别进行了探讨。最后通过某防空旅装备保障能力评价实例,验证了参数体系设计方法的可操作性和有效性。     

不可预见作战下排弹抢修力量编配分析

在资源有限的情况下,综合考虑某一区域不同机场之间的相互关系,从整体的角度合理分配排弹抢修资源,可以大幅提升区域内军队机场阵地的战场排弹抢修能力。本文通过建立数学模型,从整体的角度出发,分析区域内各机场的排弹抢修资源分配问题：首先,针对不可预见作战带来的新挑战,提出了新的机场排弹抢修作业流程,引出排弹抢修力量分配所面临的几个现实问题;其次,为解决提出的问题,建立计算排弹抢修时间的数学模型;最后,利用建立的模型依次对上述问题进行分析,并给出排弹抢修资源编配与力量建设的建议。本研究认为,军事机场排弹抢修力量应根据机场特点,合理分配排弹抢修资源;要以机场排弹抢修力量为主导,以外部支援力量为辅助,提升机场自身排弹抢修能力;可通过建设排弹抢修物资仓库和设置排弹抢修支援小组,提升多机场联动的排弹抢修能力。     

基于复杂网络的机群作战建模与仿真

机群作战已成为战争中的主要作战形式之一。而传统的作战模型,已经不适应其多任务驱动、多机种协作的机群作战特性。为此,以复杂网络为基础,提出了一种构造不同类型的节点连接的动态生成算法,构建了反映真实作战场景的网络描述模型,较好地呈现出了机群作战中的涌现性、模糊性等诸多性质。并提出了描述机群作战网络的统计特征量,通过破击仿真实验,得出了与战争事实相符合的结论,为未来研究机群作战体系效能评估打下了基础。     

论化学灾害事故社会救援中的协同作战

针对化学灾害事故社会救援中协同作战问题,论述统一意图下的协同作战思想、协同救援联合体的构建、协同作战任务的确定、作战中的协同和协同中的指挥方式.     

Varieties of defection strategies from multinational military coalitions: Insights from operation Iraqi freedom

How do states defect from multinational military coalitions? The question deserves considerable academic scrutiny, as states increasingly rely on coalitions to prosecute military missions. Yet to the extent that coalition defection has been explored, the extant literature tends to see defection as a binary undertaking – states are either in or out. In practice, however, defection is an act of risk minimization in a manner that forces other coalition partners to fill resulting operational gaps. A coalition can therefore appear stable due to a constant number of flags associated with the mission, but in practice be much less coherent and capable. After defining defection as a non-routine abrogation of operational responsibility at other coalition partners’ expense, significantly prior to mission conclusion, this article explores several states’ participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the various manners by which they defected from that coalition. It concludes with implications for future scholarship.     

Data-driven research in retail operations—A review

We review the operations research/management science literature on data-driven methods in retail operations. This line of work has grown rapidly in recent years, thanks to the availability of high-quality data, improvements in computing hardware, and parallel developments in machine learning methodologies. We survey state-of-the-art studies in three core aspects of retail operations—assortment optimization, order fulfillment, and inventory management. We then conclude the paper by pointing out some interesting future research possibilities for our community.     

ISIS’s Warfare Functions: A Systematized Review of a Proto-state’s Conventional Conduct of Combat Operations

This article gives an overall assessment of ISIS’s conventional conduct of combat operations by examining their warfighting functions patterns. In sum, the approach of ISIS comprised fundamental principles: their weapons can be organized into categories, purposeful combination of these forces in keeping with the concept of combined arms combat, and hierarchical command and control executed by experienced commanders. ISIS combat groups combined the elements of formation and firepower as well as movement and mobility. The paper concludes that ISIS obviously had a vast range of conventional capabilities at its disposal and was thus able to conduct major operations.     

Security Assistance in a Post-interventionist Era: The Impact on Limited Statehood in Lebanon and Tunisia

Abstract

Post-interventionist security assistance is premised on non-normative security understandings and flexible arrangements between external and local actors. In hybrid political regimes or areas of limited statehood, these forms of assistance, while strengthening specific aspects of a country’s security context, reinforce some domestic actors vis-à-vis others thanks to processes of selective borrowing by local political elites. This paper demonstrates how such processes contribute to the proliferation of hybrid elements in the country’s security sector. In two contrasting case studies, we illustrate how security assistance packages in Lebanon and Tunisia have diluted emerging democratic reforms, producing more coercive manifestation of state power.