Böcker av Matthias Herfert

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: In Chapter 2, ?Foundations?, we provide a description of selected parts of theories which we believe are helpful to better understand the contribution of this thesis. We start with the presentation of several behavioral hypotheses in preference and utility theory. Next, we describe the basics of inferential statistics and Conjoint Analysis. Then, we describe probabilistic entropy, in addition to that a later established version of it, and its axiomatization as a general inference principle. We conclude Chapter 2 by presenting La Mura's decision-theoretic entropy, a version of entropy as an inference technique for expected utilities. La Mura had developed this connection between probabilistic entropy and expected utilities in his Ph.D. thesis. Based on his work, the initial research objective for this dissertation had been to make his approach applicable to the inference of unique consumer utilities given some observed evidence, having in mind the vast amounts of data that nowadays are available to analysts but still not used very effectively, in order to jointly overcome the limitations of Conjoint Analysis as mentioned above. In the following five chapters you will see that our research has instead resulted in a new method, namely Entropy Analysis, which is not based on expected utility functions but on ordinary utility functions. We close Chapter 2 with a conclusion for the following chapters. In Chapter 3, ?Entropy Analysis?, we derive the new method combining probabilistic cross-entropy and ordinary utility functions. We start by imposing a set of conditions on the inference method. Then, we suggest a normalization of utility functions such that they become formally a probability measure. Finally, we present and prove our main result. In Chapter 4, ?Irrational Behavior?, we present a solution for the problem of how to treat observed ?irrational? behavior (see Definition 4.1) with Entropy Analysis. This is motivated by two reasons. First, we are hardly able to observe ?perfectly? rational data in any survey or for any given set of transaction data. Therefore, any utility inference method that cannot deal with irrational data will not be meaningful for research or commercial applications. Second, our method is at first sight formally structured in a way in which its application to irrational data would return an inferred utility function that is trivial, i.e. uniform (to be further explained at the beginning of the [¿]

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: The Internet plays an important role of today?s management decision-making. Great opportunities have to be weighted against investments into knowledge, technology, and organizational restructuring. Often, great uncertainty is involved because of rapidly changing technologies and mutual dependence of transaction parties on each other?s degree of technology adoption. The main advantage of electronically performed activities is its improved efficiency. In the past, business-to-business applications have been based on specific investments of individual firms that attempted to gain competitive advantages from proprietary electronic data interchange (EDI). However, investments were huge and flexibility was very limited. Nowadays, Internet technologies allow for global reach, ubiquity, and improved efficiency at reduced asset specificity. One business application of Internet technologies is the independent business-to-business Internet-based marketplace (IBMP), on which buyers and sellers can perform service, product, information, and money transactions. Due to the early stage of technology adoption, the suitability of specific IBMP-transactions is often unclear and all those actors involved have to make strategic decisions concerning the way in which future product transactions will be performed. With the help of this thesis, buyers, sellers, and marketplace providers can evaluate the transactional suitability of product categories. Such an evaluation is of particular importance to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME). They often lack automation and economies of scale. Therefore, the potential of improved efficiency through Internet technologies is here especially high. An exploratory study with the IBMP mondus has allowed for an empirical testing of selected evaluation criteria within selected product categories. The final results of the application explain the complexity of the decision situation and the remaining uncertainty due to the early stage of technology adoption. Inhaltsverzeichnis:Table of Contents: Management SummaryI ContentsII List of Abbreviations & SymbolsIV List of FiguresVIII List of TablesVIII 1.Introduction1 1.1.The Gap between Present Knowledge and Desired Competence1 1.2.The Research Concept2 1.2.1.Specification of Objectives2 1.2.2.Approach and Procedure3 1.2.3.Empirical Evidence3 1.2.3.1.Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises4 1.2.3.2.The Company mondus ltd.4 1.3.Structure of the [¿]