Sparked by accelerating globalization, many studies have examined the influences of Hofstede's cultural scores on consumer attitudes. Past research suggested that high uncertainty avoidance, a characteristic of Japanese culture, leads to strict customer evaluations and low customer satisfaction. While researchers found clear evidence of this effect for uncertainty avoidance as a facet of country culture, they found mixed evidence for uncertainty avoidance as a personal cultural trait. Based on consumer data from ten industries in Japan, this article thus explores the mechanism linking personal uncertainty avoidance to customer satisfaction and its antecedents (perceived quality, perceived value and firm image). The results suggest that personal uncertainty avoidance does not influence customer satisfaction directly but indirectly through its antecedents. Moreover, this mechanism is much stronger for products than for services. These and other findings provide new insights about the effectiveness of personal cultural orientations as variables for market segmentation.

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In recent years, various networks have come to exist in our surroundings. This not only includes examples such as the internet and airline routes that can be thought of as networks; protein interactions are also networks. A network is defined as an arrangement of nodes (points) and links (lines). An "economic network design problem" can be discussed by assuming that a vertex is an economic player and that a link represents some connection between economic players. An economic player can mean an individual, an association, a city, a nation and so forth. A connection between economic players signifies items such as a transport link, a telecommunication net or an economic regional alliance. In this paper, an "economic network design problem" is modeled based on Jackson and Wolinsky's connections model, and the utility function of the network is defined. In the field of economics, generally, the game theory approach is adopted for analysis of network formation. However, we encounter difficulties when a network has many heterogeneous nodes. Therefore, we suggest that the optimization of an "economic network design problem" can be solved using evolutionary computation. As an example of an "economic network design problem," we consider an optimization problem of a network between regions in West Japan. In addition, the priority of the network maintenance is clarified via the optimum network obtained in the simulation.

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Visual inspection by workers plays a major role in industrial inspection processes. There are many studies on the inspection speed or the visual fatigue of the inspectors but few on the upper limb load caused by maintaining posture and grasping objects, which are also problems in visual inspection. If the object to be inspected is light in weight but large in size (e.g., a plastic part), the workers tend to take an awkward posture because it is difficult for them to handle such an object. In this study, we therefore aim to clarify the effects of the object size, grasp position and inspection speed on the upper limb load. In this experiment, ten healthy male subjects were asked to inspect objects using combinations of three object size conditions (A1, A3, and A5 paper sizes), two grasping position conditions (lateral and bottom sides of the objects) , and three inspection speed conditions (1.5s per inspection point, 1.0s per inspection point and the maximum effort speed). The muscle activity and the joint moment were used as the evaluation indices. We also investigated the subjective indices of the burden and the difficulty of the task. Electromyography was performed at the sternomastoid muscle, the upper part of the trapezius muscle, the clavicular part of the pectoralis major muscle, the sternocostal part of the pectoralis major muscle, the biceps brachii muscle, the middle part of the deltoid muscle, the flexor carpi radialis muscle and the extensor carpi ulnaris muscle. The joint moment was calculated using the angle of the neck joint, shoulder joint, elbow joint and wrist joint. The results revealed that the object size was the dominant factor affecting the upper limb load.

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In recent years, for the purpose of solving the problem regarding environment protection and resource saving, certain measures and policies have been promoted to establish green supply chains (GSCs); that is, supply chains with material flows from colleciton of used products to reuse of recycled parts in production of products. In this study, we propose an optimal production policy for GSCs while considering the collection incentive of the used products and quality for recycling of used products. Concretely, in GSCs, a retailer pays an incentive for collection of used products from customers and hands over the used products to a manufacturer. In addition, the retailer specifies a production quantity of the product while considering product demand uncertaintity. The manufacturer disassembles the used products, inspects them and classifies recyclable parts into quality levels. After the classification, the manufacturer makes a decision for advisability of reuse based on the quality level of recyclable parts and covers part of the retailer's incentive for collection of used products based on the quantity of recycled parts. In this paper, two types of decision-making approaches for product quantity, collection incentive of used products and lower limit of quality level for recycling in GSCs are used. One is the decision-making under the independent policy in decentralized supply chains where retailers and manufacturers make decisions so as to maximize their profits individually. The other is the decision-making under the cooperative policy in centralized supply chains where retailers and manufacturers make decisions cooperatively so as to maximize the whole system's profit. Additionally, we also discuss supply chain coordination as a manufacturer-retailer partnership based on profit sharing. Furthermore, we show the effect of the quality of the recyclable parts on the optimal decisions and the expected profits. It is found that the collection incentive of the used products brings more profitability to GSC activity.

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A support system is developed for planning work posture. A virtual reality technique is applied in this system. First, a user interface is made to readily aid design work posture. Next, quantitative criteria following the OWAS method are set for the judgement of posture codes of the back, upper limb and both legs. Additionally, a software program is incorporated into this system to allow touch sensing between hand and objects and to evaluate the load on the body. Then, performance of this system is examined via a case study of the transshipment operation at a distribution center. A posture assessment is performed using this system and by an industrial physician. Their results are compared in detail. Action categories in these assessments are the same in 76% of cases and the correlation coefficient is 0.85. Finally, the work posture of transshipment operation is redesigned using this system and the improvement effect of the revised plan is shown.

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Cloud computing has created a shift in the trend of IT services - from selling to leasing IT platforms as cloud services. In other words, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) have replaced software or hardware products with their functional service interfaces. This shift now introduces cloud vendors into the traditional BtoBtoC business model. IT service providers have to expand their roles as the tasks of implementing and con figuring IT systems will now be conducted by the cloud vendors. Due to this, the IT service providers should focus not only on implementing web services but also supporting a broad range of service delivery processes-planning, design, implementation, testing and operation. To meet such demands for IT services, this paper proposes production methods for cloud-compliant web services. The methods are underpinned by design engineering approaches - axiomatic design, design structure matrix and design-for-X. They are embodied with the development and operation tools, which are called Service Lambda for Cloud Computing. The tools feature the following two mechanisms: (1) a service model chain, which integrates each design or operation perspective and covers whole production process and (2) a knowledge processing unit, which reassembles lifecycle data and produces consolidated views for collaborative work between IT service providers and their clients. Each design and operational task is then systematized with the tools, and the whole production processes for web services are streamlined. A case study shows that the methods can shorten the delivery time of web services to end-users. In addition to these approaches, the paper indicates that further productivity of cloud-compliant web services can be achieved by patterning, storing and customizing these production processes for mass customization.

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In this research, cooking behaviors in the kitchen are measured using behavior observation methods to achieve improvements in both quality and work efficiency. In the first study, the cooking behaviors of proficient kitchen staff and normal kitchen staff are observed. Corrective strategies are then discussed through analyzing the relationship with quality and work efficiency. In the second study, the cooking operations, such as roles and methods, are rearranged in order to examine the effectiveness. Three findings are obtained. 1) cooking behaviors can be divided into two tasks: those that require skills, and those that don't, 2) cooking roles should be determined not by the physical arrangement in the kitchen but by cooking skills to improve both the work efficiency and the quality of dish, and 3) demand fluctuation should be considered to implement corrective strategies for cooking operations.

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For private enterprises, it has become increasingly important and indispensable to utilize and purchase an advanced information system from a software provider. The system helps firms to keep an eye on items such as the volatile market conditions, competitor changes and changing consumer needs. Generally speaking, installation of the specific information system starts when both a private enterprise and a provider in coordination begin to discuss planning for the installation with a "Requirement for Proposal (RFP)" being issued. This process eventually proceeds to testing of the system before it is finally put into place. Later, software maintenance becomes an important issue. Recently, it has become evident that, for many private firms, the expenditure for the software maintenance seems increasingly more expensive than that of the original installation and development of the software. With this in mind, this paper attempts to focus on software maintenance and the problem thereof. This paper deals with two related issues. First, it discusses system maintenance and tries to come up with a model best suited for this purpose. The paper attempts to study system repatriation. When requiring system maintenance, a company usually wants to know the cost and the timing of the maintenance work. The information on these issues is estimated in this paper as "the additional dates of the system repatriation." A logistic curve is applied to evaluate the expenditure. The second issue this paper examines is development of a system to measure the approximate cost of repatriation. In developing this information, the paper highlights a decision-tree method. Taking advantage of these two different information sets, administrators in a given firm are given a rough idea as to when maintenance work starts and how much the costs of this process for the enterprise, thus allowing them to be well prepared for software maintenance.

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The present paper investigates truck drivers' satisfaction and its effects on safety outcomes. A questionnaire-based survey of truck drivers' satisfaction was conducted. Responses were collected from 1,028 drivers working for 49 trucking companies in Japan. Principal component analysis revealed a four-factor satisfaction construct. Significant differences in several factors of driver satisfaction were identified by respondent attributes such as age, work experience and employment conditions, i.e., regularly employed drivers vs. non-regular employees. Using accident records collected from 11 companies surveyed, significant correlations were observed for all satisfaction factors with injury accident rates or total damage. In particular, safe driving and decreased monetary damage were facilitated by improving drivers' satisfaction with training and the vehicle. Implications for achieving higher employee satisfaction and safety outcomes in the trucking industry were also discussed.

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This study is concerned with multistage logistic network optimization under disruption risk. In its development, we consider three types of logistic network models, i.e., the multi-multi allocation, multi-single allocation and single-single allocation model. These logistic models are formulated as respective mixed-integer programming models with the expected cost function. Commercial software is then applied to find the optimal solutions. Moreover, defining a metric to stand for a certain service level or simplicity of network, we show a procedure to derive a final decision through morphological analysis. Through a numerical experiment, we show that the proposed idea is promising for use to design a resilient logistic network available for business continuity plan/management.

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Technology transfers are an important method of realizing technological progress. Based on data of technical transfers from 2001 to 201 1, we create a Chinese industrial technology transfers network using social network analysis (SNA). From out-degree and in-degree measures, we find that there is a very large gap between different regions. Developed regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong, are centers of technology exports, but also centers of technology imports. Less developed regions are at a disadvantage in terms of both technology exports and imports.

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Fresh agricultural products, i.e., fruits and vegetables, originate in nature and therefore the value (price) of each product differs. For such non-uniform products, traditional price elasticity based on the sales amount does not indicate tendencies in demand. In this paper, we focus on shelf time defined as the period between shelf arrival and departure. We propose an elasticity of demand based on shelf time as an alternative indicator of demand. The elasticity is represented in terms of the relationship between price and shelf time, and is expected to be a positive value because shelf time increases as price increases. To clarify the relationship, we extend an information system for an existing farmers' market to record times of both arrival and sales. One-year practical operation at the market, we collect and analyze data on shelf time. We show the relationship between shelf time and price for several products and discuss the existence of the elasticity. Conditions needed to clarify the elasticity are also discussed in relation to farmers' markets.

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The present paper proposed gaze metrics that represent visual scanning patterns of clinical engineers performing hemodialysis operations. To perform a feasibility study, a series of five-month observations were carried out in a hospital to collect eye-movement data from two novices and one expert. By applying the metrics proposed, we conducted comparative analyses among the novice and expert engineers. In the novices' data, we found a learning tendency in metrics relating to efficient information acquisition in the current task. In addition, we found that the expert differed from novices in terms of efficient visual scanning for anticipation of the future status. Based on our findings, the feasibility of metrics as well as characteristics of learning processes of novices were discussed.

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