140 research outputs found
Essays on Online Gaming Communities
Get PDFThis dissertation investigates key issues related to online gaming communities. Across three essays, the author explores the effects of three factors―(1) social connection, (2) demarketing, and (3) game design―on game users’ behaviors. The findings from the studies provide implications for theory, along with practical implications for game developers and policy makers.
In the first essay, the author examines the effect of social interactions on gamers’ in-game purchases of two different types of products, functional and social utility products. The author uses a unique and large scale dataset from an online game―that consists of users’ detailed gaming activities, their social connections and their in-game purchases of functional and social utility products―to examine the impact of gamers’ networks on their purchase behavior. The current analysis reveals evidence of “social dollars,” whereby social interaction between gamers in the community increases purchase of both functional and social utility products.
In the second essay, the author examines the effects on user behavior of two demarketing policy changes with regard to online and mobile games in South Korea: (1) lowering the maximum limit on online item purchases, and (2) restrictively allowing the use of real money to purchase items in mobile gaming apps. The author finds that lowering the maximum limit on online item purchases decreases the number of online gamers, and that allowing item purchases with real money in mobile games increases the number of mobile game players. The author finds that there are positive cross-channel spillover effects.
In the third essay, the author examines the goal gradient effects on behaviors related to attaining the goal (i.e., a game level) and purchasing virtual products in an online game. The author
provides empirical evidence that achieving game levels serve as goals. The author finds that users’ efforts related to reaching a new level increases as they become closer to the new level. However, their efforts suddenly decrease right after attaining it. The author finds that while users are less likely to purchase both goal-relevant and goal-irreverent virtual items right before achieving the new level, they purchase more virtual items once they reach the goal
FROM BORDERS TO BREAKTHROUGHS: HOW IMMIGRATION LAWS SHAPE TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS
No full textThe innovative capacity of firms fundamentally relies on the organization of strategic human capital. Highly skilled and talented employees drive knowledge creation through their expertise and creativity. As such, the organization and redeployment of knowledge workers across global subsidiaries and teams is a pivotal capability underpinning firms’ competitive edge. However, firms must operate within and adhere to the macro regulatory environments in the countries where they are located. With increasingly global interconnectedness, there is also a rise in nations’ announcing changes to their immigration policies to support national interests. These changes to immigration policies may affect firms' ability to organize human resources in a way that is most conducive for their knowledge creation and innovation objectives. Firms may then respond strategically to meet their innovation objectives while protecting their knowledge from leaking to competitors in foreign or local geographies. This dissertation examines how changes to immigration policies prompt strategic responses from firms in terms of meeting their innovation objectives by reorganizing their human capital and further proposes a three-dimensional framework for an immigration policy that supports economic growth and innovation in the destination country. The first chapter lays the groundwork for the dissertation and review conceptual foundations of each of the following essays. The second chapter examines the strategic response by multinational enterprises (MNEs) when their ability to deploy knowledge workers across national boundaries is affected by restrictive immigration policies. The third chapter examines individual- and firm-level responses to an increase in employees’ bargaining power. Findings reveal that the regulation afforded greater bargaining power to ethnic inventors, leading to greater interfirm mobility, positional changes in the intrafirm collaboration network, and a change in innovation performance. Finally, the fourth essay then argues that in addition to formal human capital, foreign knowledge workers contribute unique social capital which benefits their MNE employers in terms of innovation outcomes and puts forth a comprehensive three-dimensional immigration policy framework integrating migrants’ skillsets with their bridging potential across nations, contingent on inter-state relations. By accounting for security trade-offs and variations in bilateral collaborative intent, this multidimensional perspective allows calibrated screening of talent from allied versus adversarial origins.
Synthesized together, the three studies highlight how regulations pertaining to high-skilled immigration significantly disrupt organizations’ access to strategic foreign talent, necessitating trade-offs to reconfigure innovation capabilities. This dissertation contributes to strategic management and international business literature by underlining the global organization of human capital as pivotal to understanding MNE responses to external constraints on foreign talent deployment. Further, it informs immigration policy debates through a multifaceted evaluation of skillsets, bridging ties and bilateral relations that influence productive integration of foreign talent.Business Administration/Strategic Managemen
Block-based Outpatient Clinic Appointments Scheduling Under Open-access Policy
Get PDFOutpatient clinic appointment scheduling is an important topic in OR/IE studies. Open-access policy shows its strength in improving patient access and satisfaction, as well as reducing no-show rate. The traditional far-in-advance scheduling plays an important role in handling chronic and follow-up care. This dissertation discusses a hybrid policy under which a clinic deals with three types of patients. The first type of patients are those who request their appointments before the visit day. The second type of patients schedule their appointment on the visit day. The third type of patients are walk-in patients who go to the clinic without appointments and wait to see the physician in turn.
In this dissertation, the online scheduling policy is addressed for the Type 2 and Type 3 patients, and the offline scheduling policy is used for the Type 1 patients. For the online scheduling policy, two stochastic integer programming (SIP) models are built under two different sets of assumptions. The first set of assumptions ignores the endogenous uncertainty in the problem. An aggregate assigning method is proposed with the deterministic equivalent problem (DEP) model. This method is demonstrated to be better than the traditional one-at-a-time assignment through both overestimation and underestimation numerical examples. The DEP formulations are solved using the proposed bound-based sampling method, which provides approximated solutions and reasonable sample size with the least gap between lower and upper bound of the original objective value.
On the basis of the first set of assumptions and the SIP model, the second set of assumptions considers patient no-shows, preference, cancellations and lateness, which introduce endogenous uncertainty into the SIP model. A modified L-shaped method and aggregated multicut L-shaped method are designed to handle the model with decision dependent distribution parameter. Distinctive optimality cut generation schemes are proposed for three types of distribution for linked random variables. Computational experiments are conducted to compare performance and outputs of different methods. An alternative formulation of the problem with simple recourse function is provided, based on which, a mixed integer programming model is established as a convenient complementary method to evaluate results with expected value.
The offline scheduling aims at assigning a certain number of Type 1 patients with deterministic service time and individual preferences into a limited number of blocks, where the sum of patients��� service time in a block does not exceed the block length. This problem is associated with bin packing problem with restrictions. Heuristic and metaheuristic methods are designed to adapt the added restrictions to the bin packing problem. Zigzag sorting is proposed for the algorithm and is shown to improve the performance significantly. A clique based construction method is designed for the Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure and Simulated Annealing. The proposed methods show higher efficiency than traditional ones.
This dissertation offers a series of new and practical resolutions for the clinic scheduling problem. These methods can facilitate the clinic administrators who are practicing the open-access policy to handle different types of patients with deterministic or nondeterministic arrival pattern and system efficiency. The resolutions range from operations level to management level. From the operations aspect, the block-wise assignment and aggregated assignment with SIP model can be used for the same-day request scheduling. From the management level, better coordination of the assignment of the Type 1 patients and the same-day request patients will benefit the cost-saving control
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