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The current approach to valuing customers is based on the notion of discounted profit generated by the customers over the lifetime of the relationship, also known as customer lifetime value (CLV). However, in the financial services industry, the customers who contribute the most to the profitability of a firm are also the riskiest customers. If the riskiness of a customer is not considered, firms will overestimate the true value of that customer. This paper proposes a methodology to adjust CLV for different types of risk factors and creates a comprehensive measure of risk-adjusted lifetime value (RALTV).

Using data from a major credit card company, we develop a measure of risk adjusted lifetime value (RALTV) that accounts for diverse types of customer risks. The model is estimated using Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA).

Major findings indicate that rewards cardholders and affinity cardholders tend to score higher within the RALTV framework than non-rewards cardholders and non-affinity cardholders, respectively. Among the four different modes of acquisition, the Internet generates the highest RALTV, followed by direct mail.

This paper not only controls for different types of consumer risks in the financial industry and creates a comprehensive risk-adjusted lifetime value (RALTV) model but also shows empirically the value of using RALTV over CLV for predicting future performance of a set of customers. Further, we investigate the impact of a firm’s acquisition and retention strategies on RALTV. The measure of risk-adjusted lifetime value is invaluable for managers in financial services.

The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.

This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.

This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of “BroncoCut-X” (copper core-ZnCu50 coating) electrode on the machining of Ti-3Al-2.5V in view of its extensive use in aerospace and medical applications. The machining parameters are selected as Spark-off Time (ST_off), Spark-on Time (ST_on), Wire-speed (S_w), Wire-Tension (WT) and Servo-Voltage (S_v) to explore the machining outcomes. The response characteristics are measured in terms of material removal rate (MRR), average kerf width (KW) and average-surface roughness (SA).

Taguchi’s approach is used to design the experiment. The “AC Progress V2 high precision CNC-WEDM” is used to conduct the experiments with ϕ 0.25 mm diameter wire electrode. The machining performance characteristics are examined using main effect plots and analysis of variance. The grey-relation analysis and fuzzy interference system techniques have been developed to combine (called grey-fuzzy reasoning grade) the experimental response while Rao-Algorithm is used to calculate the optimal performance.

The hybrid optimization result is obtained as ST_off = 50µs, ST_on = 105µs, S_w = 7 m/min, WT = 12N and S_v=20V. Additionally, the result is compared with the firefly algorithm and improved gray-wolf optimizer to check the efficacy of the intended approach. The confirmatory test has been further conducted to verify optimization results and recorded 8.14% overall machinability enhancement. Moreover, the scanning electron microscopy analysis further demonstrated effectiveness in the WEDMed surface with a maximum 4.32 µm recast layer.

The adopted methodology helped to attain the highest machinability level. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first investigation within the considered parametric range and adopted optimization technique for Ti-3Al-2.5V using the wire-electro discharge machining.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of RAMS engineering in industry and research.

A range of research articles (1988‐2005) covering RAMS engineering is discussed to provide a practical and theoretical overview of RAMS engineering in industry and research.

The paper provides information about the current scenario and also about the past scenario of RAMS engineering in research and industry. Research limitations/implications – This paper reviews much of the literature on RAMS engineering. The literature is collected from major journals and conference proceedings, the period covered is from 1988 to 2005. The authors have tried to make it reasonably comprehensive, but those papers which are not included were either inadvertently overlooked or considered peripheral to this survey. In the present work the authors have only considered those articles which have included two or more aspects of RAMS. Practical implications – The paper is a very useful source of information for researchers working in the area of RAMS engineering. Originality/value – This paper offers help to researchers in understanding the current and past status of RAMS.

This paper aims to study boundary and interior layer phenomena in coupled multiscale parabolic convection–diffusion interface problems and to present their efficient numerical resolution and analysis.

This study includes cases in which the diffusion parameters are small, distinct and can differ in order of magnitude. The source term is considered to be discontinuous. The asymptotic behavior of the solution is examined. The layer structure is analyzed, leading to the development of a variant of layer-resolving Shishkin mesh. For efficient numerical resolution, two methods are developed by combining additive schemes on a uniform mesh to discretize in time and an upwind difference scheme away from the line of discontinuity and a specific upwind difference scheme along the line of discontinuity, defined on a variant of layer resolving Shishkin mesh, to discretize in space. The analysis of the numerical resolution is discussed using the barrier function approach. Numerical simulations provide a verification of the theory and efficiency of the approach.

The discontinuity in the source term, along with the inclusion of small and distinct diffusion parameters, results in multiple overlapping and interacting boundary and interior layers. The work demonstrates that the present approach is robust in resolving boundary and interior layers. From a computational cost perspective, the numerical resolution presented in the paper is more efficient than conventional approaches.

Efficient numerical resolution and analysis of boundary and interior layer phenomena in coupled multiscale parabolic convection–diffusion interface problems are provided. The discretization of the coupled system in the approach incorporates a distinctive feature, wherein the components of the approximate solution are decoupled at each time level, resulting in tridiagonal linear systems to be solved, in contrast to large banded linear systems with conventional approaches.