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This paper calls attention to the profound differences between personal inventory decision making and the corresponding decision making of business organizations. It is argued first that the motivations and criteria being used by consumers are vastly different from the assumptions of models such as the well known EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) model. Next the implications for marketing are discussed. A research agenda is then proposed for filling in some of what is currently unknown.

The concept of money‐back contingent contracts has been used in the insurance industry for many years. To the extent that product service contracts are similar to health insurance policies, there is a strong possibility of carryover of this desirable feature to product warranties and extended service contracts.

New software products are now available that offer solutions to operational problems that could not be handled by traditional linear programming. The problem of quality performance described could previously only have been handled by writing a special purpose simulation program. Now it can be solved in a spreadsheet environment using Evolver and RISKOptimizer software. Evolver can identify a global rather than a local optimal solution when non‐linear relationships are present. RISKOptimizer takes the process one step further. It combines @RISK simulation capablity with Evolver’s optimization algorithms to handle stochastic variables (uncertain demand and prices).

This paper seeks to investigate the role of information systems integration in Irish small and medium‐sized enterprises operating in the manufacturing sector.

Research was conducted through a review of literature and subsequent primary research involving qualitative (semi‐structured interviews) and quantitative (questionnaires) research strategies.

The paper reveals the sophistication of internal IT infrastructure within Irish manufacturing SMEs and whether the IT systems are integrated with one another, and, if so, how well that integration is done. Moreover, the owner‐managers' and senior managers' attitude to IS integration issues is explored, including the reasons that prompt them to integrate IT systems within their businesses, their expectations of IS integration, the challenges they recognise when integrating the systems and their criteria regarding IS integration.

The research focuses on manufacturing SMEs operating in Ireland; other sectors are not investigated.

The paper helps the owner‐managers and senior managers to understand the issues of IS integration and points towards possible solutions to the problem of disparate IT systems.

The negative impact of disparate systems and the benefits of integrating them in an SMEs environment have not been thoroughly examined to date.

In the last decade naturalistic decision making has been pursued by cognitive psychologists. The focus is on how human experts make decisions under conditions of time pressure and complexity; how they organize and use their knowledge is expected to provide principles for the emerging science of knowledge management. This paper surveys this research and discusses results, which indicate more attention needs to be given to: problem formulation; asking the right questions; use of teams; organization of knowledge; expanding scope of expert systems and case‐based reasoning. Also the method, cognitive task analysis, which is generally used in naturalistic decision making is readily adaptable to business knowledge management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristic flow structures behind a backward-facing step. With better understanding of unsteady features, effective control practice with harmonic actuation is illustrated.

The present study employs Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation to resolve flow turbulence with a finite-volume approach on structured grid mesh. The coherent structure is displayed through temporal- and spatial-evolution of pressure fluctuations. Characteristic frequencies in different flow regions are extracted using fast Fourier transform. Dynamic mode decomposition method is applied to uncover the critical dynamic modes.

The time- and spanwise-averaged quantities agree well with experimental data. It is observed that two distinct modes exist: shear layer mode and shedding mode. The former is related to Kelvin-Helmholtz instability mechanism, vortex pairing and step mode with non-dimensional frequency, St_h,st at around 0.2. The latter is of multi-scale, with a typical coherent structure shedding frequency, St_h,st at 0.074. Step mode interacts with shedding mode in the reattachment region, resulting in the low-frequency characteristics.

An optimal excitation frequency to reduce recirculation bubble length is obtained at about St_h,st=0.2 with an explanation.

Today, low-income people seeking resources from the federal government must often work through non-profit organizations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the constraints that the poor must face today to secure resources through non-profit organizations.

This is a conceptual paper. The authors review cases of non-profit organizations providing federally supported resources to the poor across multiple sectors.

The authors find that to accept government contracts serving the poor, nonprofit organizations must often engage in one or several practices: reject clients normally consistent with their mission, select clients based on likely outcomes, ignore problems in clients’ lives relevant to their predicament, or undermine client progress to manage funding requirements. To secure government-supported resources from nonprofits, the poor must often acquiesce to intrusions into one or more of the following: their privacy (disclosing sensitive information), their self-protection (renouncing legal rights), their identity (avowing a particular self-understanding) or their self-mastery (relinquishing authority over daily routines).

The authors show that the nonprofits’ dual role as brokers, both liaisons transferring resources and representatives of the state, can complicate their relation to their clients and the predicament of the poor themselves; the authors suggest that two larger trends, toward increasing administrative accountability and demonstrating deservingness, are having both intended and unintended consequences for the ability of low-income individuals to gain access to publicly funded resources.

The objective of this paper is to further explore the emerging concept of personal knowledge management (PKM) and to bring researchers’ attention to this notion. Specifically, this paper aims to address issues related to the effective utilisation of technology in PKM practices.

A theoretical framework incorporating PKM skills, technology tools, user context and skills‐tools fit is proposed. Arguments are built on the task‐technology fit theory, which explores the link between technology tools and task characteristics (PKM skills).

The impact of effective PKM will depend increasingly on skills‐tools fit.

The success of technology utilisation resides not simply in whether individuals use technology, but if this usage actually improves effectiveness. For their own benefit, individuals should consider and assess the technology tools in the context of how they will be aligned with specific PKM skills.

Proposing a conceptual framework of PKM, this paper suggests that the core focus is individual inquest, that is, the effort to discover, share, learn and explore through combinations of technology and information skills. The importance of the user's context in the PKM process is also discussed