Balk

About: Balk is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 290 publications have been published within this topic receiving 3909 citations. The topic is also known as: balked.

Parametric Decomposition of a Generalized Malmquist Productivity Index

Abstract: This paper provides a parametric decomposition of a generalized Malmquist productivity index which takes into account scale economies. Unlike Balk (2001), the contribution of scale economies to productivity change is evaluated without recourse to scale efficiency measures, which are neither bounded for globally increasing, decreasing, or constant returns to scale technologies nor for ray-homogeneous technologies. An empirical application using panel data from Spanish savings banks is included. This application shows the advantages of the suggested method compared to Balk's approach. The results show an increase of total factor productivity which can be mainly attributed to technical progress and the positive effect of returns to scale.

Some Queuing Problems with Balking and Reneging. I

Abstract: Balking refusing to join the queue and reneging leaving the queue after entering are considered. The model assumes 1 Customers arrive from a single infinite source in a Poisson stream 2 Arriving customers balk with probability n/N where n is the number in system and N is the maximum number allowed in the system 3 Joining customers renege if service does not begin by a certain time, which is a random variable with negative exponential distribution 4 A single-service facility operates on a first-come, first-served basis with negative exponential service time distribution. For the steady state, the following are obtained the state probabilities, mean number in queue and system, the probability of R or more in system, the probabilities of balking, waiting, reneging, and acquiring service, the customer loss rate, the distribution and mean value of time in queue for customers who acquire service, and the corresponding results for those who renege. All of these results are also obtained for a pure balking system no reneging by setting the reneging parameter equal to zero. This case may be interpreted as the simple machine interference problem for which some of our results appear to be new.

Analysis and Comparison of Queues with Different Levels of Delay Information

Abstract: Information about delays can enhance service quality in many industries. Delay information can take many forms, with different degrees of precision. Different levels of information have different effects on customers and therefore on the overall system. To explore these effects, we consider a queue with balking under three levels of delay information: no information, partial information (the system occupancy), and full information (the exact waiting time). We assume Poisson arrivals, independent exponential service times, and a single server. Customers decide whether to stay or balk based on their expected waiting costs, conditional on the information provided. We show how to compute the key performance measures in the three systems, obtaining closed-form solutions for special cases. We then compare the three systems. We identify some important cases where more accurate delay information improves performance. In other cases, however, information can actually hurt the provider or the customers.

Equilibrium customer strategies in a single server Markovian queue with setup times

Abstract: We consider a single server Markovian queue with setup times. Whenever this system becomes empty, the server is turned off. Whenever a customer arrives to an empty system, the server begins an exponential setup time to start service again. We assume that arriving customers decide whether to enter the system or balk based on a natural reward-cost structure, which incorporates their desire for service as well as their unwillingness to wait. We examine customer behavior under various levels of information regarding the system state. Specifically, before making the decision, a customer may or may not know the state of the server and/or the number of present customers. We derive equilibrium strategies for the customers under the various levels of information and analyze the stationary behavior of the system under these strategies. We also illustrate further effects of the information level on the equilibrium behavior via numerical experiments.