ABSTRACT. Based on regulatory focus theory and technology acceptance model, this paper develops a theoretical model with four mediating decision process variables (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and perceived self-design accomplishment) and two of their antecedents: customization strategies (selection strategy vs. rejection strategy) and consumers’ regulatory orientations (promotion focus vs. prevention focus) to examine the compatibility effect of customization strategies and consumers’ regulatory orientations on their cognitive (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) and affective (perceived enjoyment and perceived self-design accomplishment) perceptions and its consequent influence on users’ intentions to web-based mass customization (MC) systems. The experimental results indicate that consumers’ regulatory orientations moderates the effect of customization strategies on users’ cognitive and affective perceptions of web-based MC systems. In particular, promotion-focused consumers experience higher level of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment and perceived self-design accomplishment when they use systems with selection strategy (vs. rejection strategy) to customize products, whereas prevention-focused consumers experience higher level of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment and self-design accomplishment when they uses systems with rejection strategy (vs. selection strategy) to customize products. In addition, the results also show that the compatibility effect of customization strategies and consumers’ regulatory orientations on behavioral intentions is mediated by cognitive and affective perceptions. Apart from the perceptions of usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment, perceived self-design accomplishment exerts a significant positive influence on consumers’ intentions to use web-based MC systems. A sense of accomplishment, which was achieved by satisfying the needs of both autonomy and competence, is one of the main motivations when consumers undertake creative tasks. This research identifies the perceived self-design accomplishment as an important affective response to usage intention of web-based MC systems. Perceived self-design accomplishment also applies to other creative applications, such as self-service technologies, the traditional do-it-yourself (DIY) toolkits and open-source software.

ABSTRACT. Global competition and advances in mobile computing technologies with their prolific use by consumers are helping drive several global airline organizations to formally adopt these tools for the enterprise. Airlines need to rapidly and effectively develop and share knowledge. Knowledge sharing enabled through the use of smartphones as a Distributed Information System can become a common platform for achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. Based on a unique data set obtained from the employee audio transcripts of a global Asian airline, we perform a grounded theory analysis of the social interactions of employees during the implementation of corporate smartphones from walkie-talkies for the very first time. While the employees are from an Asian country, the implementation takes place throughout a large, international airport in the United States.

The success of switching over from legacy walkie-talkie radios to smartphones, however, depends on their actual use by employees to seek and to share knowledge. Distributed Information Systems of the past often experienced unsuccessful implementations despite having executive support and being deployed to large numbers of employees (Olesen and Myers 1999; Orlikowski 1992). Implementation research shows that obstacles have typically been related to cognitive and structural organization elements (Orlikowski 1992). For example, user cognitive issues were not adequately managed through communications and training. Structural issues such as professional norms, rigid hierarchies, and design standard limitations often impeded the use of these systems for the benefits of sharing knowledge. While some employees that used these systems may have benefited individually through improved efficiency and effectiveness, they often did not realize the collective benefits through the use of these systems for the mutual sharing of knowledge with others in the organization (Halloran et al. 2002; Olesen and Myers 1999).  

Our results from data collected in the field go beyond confirming that the implementation of corporate smartphones requires employees to know how to use their functions. Employees also need to know how using smartphones can manage knowledge collectively for handling cognitive and structural organizational elements for their work. We conclude the paper with both theoretical and managerial implications and opportunities for further research.

ABSTRACT. The diffusion of smartphones is a market trend in most of the countries but not the case in Japan. Its diffusion speed in Japan is relatively slow among most of the OECD countries though her high diffusion rate of 3G/4G (LTE). There are some previous studies about this issue. Most of them point that there exists huge ‘switching cost’ in Japan. So, they say, switching cost for migration for smartphone is relatively high because so-called Galapagos phone provides relatively multi functioned in Japan. In our survey this switching cost is very limited in university students in Kyoto Sangyo University. I had a choice-based conjoint analysis upon university students in Kyoto. According to this survey younger generation (university students) tend to use new system although they used to use feature phones. For them switching costs from feature phones to smartphone are relatively low and their willingness to pay for some types of applications are very high. They use SNS, GPS navigation, phone, e-mail, and/or file sharing applications, etc. This situation diminishes switching cost for migration with its strong network externalities. In conclusion for younger generation, like students in my survey the switching cost is relatively limited under budget limitation. Their willingness to pay (WTP) for functions in smartphone (SM functions) is relatively high while WTP for functions of so-called Galapagos phone is negative. Especially SNS like LINE is the killer application for smartphone migration.

ABSTRACT. Increased Internet use and mobile devices penetration have affected daily life. Information and communication technologies have introduced new ways to purchase goods and services from online sources. Purchasing goods and services from tablet devices, smartphones, and PCs has become common. Business-to-consumer sales of electronic commerce sales are a significant component of the global consumer market. Despite their increasing number, online shops are not always profitable. The business problems of them are attributable to a lack of understanding online consumer behavior and perceptions, and not technological complexities. Understanding online customer needs, aims, and perceptions is essential for building customer relationships and achieving business success. To examine Japanese purchase behavior and priorities in online shopping, this study conducted questionnaire-based research. Our respondents were about one thousand Internet users over fifteen years old. To analyze the differences between each category of demographic features easily, they were equally chosen by gender and age. We examine respondents’ behavior to online shop usage, problem experiences, and perception of the advantages and disadvantages of online shopping. Our research also applied a choice-based conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis is an effective research method to reveal preferences for specific attributes in order to understand which factors influence consumer purchase intentions and the relative importance of certain factors. It reveals respondents’ priorities with respect to online shopping attributes. It finds how respondents evaluate online shop’s assortment, reputation or postage cost of goods. Our research also reveals the influence of online shopping experiences or problem experiences on consumer priorities. Similar research was conducted two years ago. In the past two years, online shopping has become more popular and consumers’ priorities to online shopping may have been changed. We can compare this research results with previous one and discuss the differences. These results contribute to the understanding of customers and offer useful suggestions for online shop management, such as pricing, differentiation, logistics, or advertising strategies.

ABSTRACT. A lot of big data analyses require to solve large-scale optimization problems (e.g., in estimating statistical models). Efficient algorithms for approaching optimal solutions could enable analysts or system to conduct deeper analyses, but their efficacy depends on the combination of the problem structure and the employed algorithm. This talk will focus on the role of the optimization approaches in the context of big data analysis, with the emphasis on the so-called sparse optimization based on our recent paper.

ABSTRACT. In the field of Marketing science we sometimes investigate the information on the customer's data of various characteristics such as age, sex, amount of purchasing, the area feature where he or she is living, preferences and others. The data set includes the web site links, twitters' responses, image data, e-mails, and is recorded along the time line, and it becomes so big and huge. The analysis of big data is recently in limelight of various fields of marketing and management science. In this article we firstly describe the what is big data and we discuss that what kind of statistical models are suitable for analyzing the big data. To cope with the big data of 3V's it is very important to devise models communicatable with high quality database-software so easily.

ABSTRACT. Customer relationship management is a management approach that enables organizations to identify, attract and increase retention of profitable customers, by managing relationships with them. This research has four objectives (1) identify the key technological indicators in customer relationship management. Then, using these indicators to examine practices in customer relationship management in cinema business in Hanoi; (2) analyze the interaction of the effectiveness of Cinema’s activities and distribution of staff to CRM technology system; (3) assess the level of information technology applied in building customer relationships of Platinum Cineplex. Research results indicate that although the firm is fully aware of the importance of CRM technology and the necessity of applying technology to CRM, however, the implementation in reality in the case of Platinum Cineplex still remains some constrains. The existence of those obstacles is not only occurring with Platinum Cineplex but also with other organizations in the same industry. Therefore, some of the noteworthy proposals about the application of technology in CRM in movie theaters in Hanoi, Vietnam are suggested.

ABSTRACT. The study of Supply Chain Resilience has been paid attention only recent years and most of them are remaining on the arguments of the conceptual validity and lack of practical measures. In this study, first of all, we follow previous researches related to the theme through organizing and analyzing topics of Emergency, Supply Chain Risk, and Resilient Supply Chain sequentially and systematically. With the review and understanding on the related concepts of Supply Chain Resilience, we conclude a suite of fundamental and common key points in order to establish Resilient Supply Chain. Furthermore, we derived a feasible conceptual framework concurrently so that it would be clearer how to achieve Supply Chain Resilience basically.

ABSTRACT. Information, along with materials and money, must readily flow across the supply chain to enable the planning, execution, and evaluation of key functions. Many existing information technologies worldwide support timely, cost-efficient sharing of information between suppliers, manufacturers, intermediaries, logistics services providers and customers. Vietnamese SMEs in different industries such as manufacturing, retail distribution and services have recognized the potential value of information technologies for supply chain management. However, the investment and application of information technologies to make supply chain flexible and efficient has still faced many obstacles and problems. This paper will analyze the practices of applying supply chain information technologies in some Vietnamese SMEs through conducting in-depth interviews and survey. Some solutions for enhancing the possibilities of investing and applying supply chain information technologies will also be presented in this paper.

ABSTRACT. This article examines organizational crises and responses in Japan, focusing on Chief Executive Officer (CEO) resignation and discussing the possible relationships between corporate crises and crisis responses. Eighty-eight crises that occurred in Japan over the past ten years were examined, and this study provides an explanation for a number of diverse corporate crises using two variables: the location of the cause of a crisis (locus) and the degree of possibility of prevention of a crisis (controllability). Theoretical analyses of actual cases suggest that the direct involvement of CEOs in intentional misconduct caused their resignations, and the indirect involvement of top management in crises also factored in CEOs resigning. These findings imply that CEOs do not resign because of Japanese customs but do resign because they are no longer regarded as competent by their organizations, based on job performance.

ABSTRACT. Towards 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, every Asian country has been promoting its improvement of competitive sports. Currently, the State Administration system as an exception, from the point of view of competition sports, community-based club team system as vertices the professional is considered to be the most developed form. However, in many competitive sports, it is not easy to construct community-based club teams. In Japan, the sports teams owned by companies (hereinafter referred to as "corporate sports teams") are the central role of competitive sports. Considering the development of competitive sports, the corporate sport team is recognized as a stage before the transition to the professional club team system. On the other hand, from the view of the company who operates the sports team, the reason why that the company owned the sports teams has been emphasized only the financial aspects, such as advertising activities. Recently, the corporate sports teams are recognized important because of its aspects of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. In developed countries, corporate investment is shifting from tangible assets emphasis to intangible assets emphasis. When attention is paid to this point, owning the corporate sports teams is considered can be given effect a broad sense of the intangible assets related assets of the –Relational asset (customer (previously this only), local residents, local governments, business partners), Human assets (employee morale, motivation), Structural assets (to build relationships and expansion of the corporate culture, etc.) that means both internal and external stakeholders. Thus, as the corporate sports team is an important system for competitive sports, it is also an important resource for companies. Therefore, this study investigates sports teams owned by companies in Japan and from the view point of information disclosure and corporate stakeholders’ network it analyzes the construction activities of the relationship with stakeholders in the corporate sports activities by using a statistical analysis. The results confirm that not only the expansion of the sponsoring organization by strengthening disclosure, it is particularly necessary to disclose and to strengthen relationships with local residents and local governments.

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to understand the differences of voluntary compliance behavior mechanism in corporate by the level of information technology utilization for compliance management. This study proposes a structural model based on the Theory of Reasoned Action and Social Cognitive Theory, introducing compliance behavioral belief, social pressure to comply with the laws and regulations, and compliance knowledge as the preceding factors of compliance behavior. 975 respondents from a major Korean energy company S-OIL, the firm which employs compliance support system, are classified into two groups: the active IT utilization group and the passive IT utilization group. Large portion of employees affiliated to operation sector have been shown to belong to passive IT utilization group. The result of empirical examination shows that compliance behavioral belief and social pressure influence compliance behavior, mediated by compliance knowledge in both active IT utilization group and passive IT utilization group. However, the significance of each path coefficient and R square in Model 1 (passive IT utilization group) are obviously poor contrasted to Model 2 (active IT utilization group). This article aims to promote a more effective voluntary compliance behavior by understanding such impact differences of the preceding factors and how those are related to IT utilization level of compliance support system.

ABSTRACT. Supplier segmentation, which is the process of dividing suppliers into distinct groups, is one of the key operational tasks in the field of supply chain management. To segment the appropriate green suppliers, several decision makers and criteria need to be involved in the decision process. As such, the green supplier segmentation can be viewed as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. Nonetheless, only a limited number of research has proposed decision-making methodologies to segment the suppliers. Hence, this study proposes a fuzzy TOPSIS for green supplier segmentation. The proposed method allows the ratings of alternatives and the importance weights of criteria for green supplier segmentation to be expressed in fuzzy numbers. A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to determine the importance weight of the economic and environmental criteria. The weighted fuzzy decision matrix is then derived. A closeness coefficient is defined to evaluate and segment the green suppliers by calculating the distances to both the positive and negative ideal solutions. Finally, a case study is used to illustrate the computational procedure of the proposed approach

ABSTRACT. Vietnamese supermarkets are facing fierce competition in domestic market. Therefore, they are looking for a management model to eliminate wastes and enhance business performance; this is also a tough question for practitioners and business leaders. The research firstly analyzes the current situation of lean management and identifies existing wastes in a supermarket by observing and surveying supermarkets in the Hanoi area. Secondly, this paper proposes a model of lean implementation for Vietnamese retailers. The long-term commitment of business leader is highlighted in this model. This commitment would be translated into the training- education and rewarding policies, which aim not only to enhance professional skills, but also to increase “Tam The” for the employees so that they will actively participate in the lean implementation.

ABSTRACT. Supply chain management is a concept developed in manufacturing industry to administer and control the flows of goods, finance, and information in the process of manufacturing and delivering products to end customers effectively. Many different industries have rapidly applied the approach of supply chain management and achieved higher effectiveness and efficiency in making business. Construction industry in the world have accessed the viewpoint of supply chain management and applied to construction practices since 1990. Due to the differentiated features, the application of supply chain management in construction has been slow and faced a lot of difficulties. Over the recent years, construction companies in Vietnam have tried their best to overcome the economic recession in general and in the construction industry in particular to get business effectiveness and efficiency to exist in the construction market. Many companies have moved forward, reengineered their structure, and collaborate with their partners to enhance their business results. This paper makes mention of supply chain and supply chain management in construction with collaboration, benefits, and barriers in order to evaluate the effectiveness of supply chain management in construction companies in Vietnam.

ABSTRACT. IoT provides the information for assessing and predicting quality characteristics of products, such as time-to-failure, degradation over time, products usage and life-affecting environmental variables (load, amount of use, temperature and humidity, etc). 
In this talk, I introduce some stochastic models for assessing and predicting life characteristics of products based on the above data.