Showing papers on "Information sharing published in 1991"

Information Sharing and Firm Performance in Japan

Abstract: North American firms have begun to show greater interest in sharing private business information with unions and employees, a labor relations practice widely institutionalized in Japan. This study uses a survey of Japanese joint consultation committees and publicly available business data to examine the effects of information sharing on a firm's profitability, productivity, and labor cost. The results generally show a positive association of information sharing with profitability and productivity and a negative association with labor cost.

Information Sharing and Collective Bargaining in Japan: Effects on Wage Negotiation:

Abstract: Japanese firms often attempt to influence the process and outcomes of wage negotiation by sharing confidential business information with their unions and employees through the joint consultation sy...

Liveware: a new approach to sharing data in social networks

Abstract: While most schemes that support information sharing on computers rely on formal protocols, in practice much cooperative work takes place using informal means of communication, even chance encounters. This paper proposes a new method of enabling information sharing in loosely-coupled socially-organized systems, typically involving personal rather than institutional computers and lacking the network infrastructure that is generally taken for granted in distributed computing. It is based on the idea of arranging for information transmission to take place as an unobtrusive side-effect of interpersonal communication. Update conflicts are avoided by an information ownership scheme. Under mild assumptions, we show how the distributed database satisfies the property of observational consistency. The new idea, called “Liveware”, is not so much a specific piece of technology as a fresh perspective on information sharing that stimulates new ways of solving old problems. Being general, it transcends particular distribution technologies. A prototype database, implemented in HyperCard and taking the form of an electronic directory, utilizes the medium of floppy disk to spread information in a (benign!) virus-like manner.

The Virtual Design Team: An Object-Oriented Model of Information Sharing in Project Design Teams

Abstract: The Virtual Design Team (VDT) is an object-oriented, discrete event simulation of a multidisciplinary design team in action. The VDT models a design task as a network of design and design coordination activities to be performed by one or more subteams and their managers. The prototype version of the VDT described in this paper focuses on design coordination activities involving the joint participation of several subteam managers. Subteam managers are modeled as agents who pay attention to items in an inbox according to defined attention rules, process the items in a length of time determined by processing time rules, and direct communications to other agents through an outbox. Agents are located in professional, corporate, and team hierarchies from which they inherit behavioral characteristics. Information processing technologies used by the team affect the richness, quantity and timing of information passing between agents. Within this framework, we can model the impact of organizational structure and alternative information processing technologies on the duration of the overall design task.

Information sharing in oligopoly: overview and evaluation part ii. private risks and oligopoly models

Abstract: Part I of this paper has first discussed the dual relationship between the Cournot and Bertrand duopoly models in the absence of uncertainty, and has then proceeded to focus on various types of duopoly models facing a common risk of demand or cost. It has been shown that the welfare consequences of an information transmission agreement between the firms are clasified under four headings: own and cross variation effects, and own and cross efficiency effects. Part II of the paper will now turn to the situation under which each firm is subject to its own risk. We will show that as was seen in the case of a common risk, the welfare implications of information sharing are sensitive to many factors. They are: the type of competition (Cournot or Bertrand), the nature of uncertainty (demand or cost), the number of participating firms, and the degree and direction of physical and stochastic interdependence among demand or cost parameters. It will also be argued that our theoretical investigation of information pooling sheds new light both on the desirability of trade associations and on the merits or demerits of industrial policies. I. THE CASE OF PRIVATE RISKS In Part 1, we have been concerned with the case of a common disturbance in the sense that the two firms face the sole common disturbance to their demand/cost functions. Such an environment is called a "common value" problem in the auction literature. However, there is another equally important environment called a "private values" problem in the same literature . In Part II, we will deal with the case of idiosyncratic disturbances: There are now two different sources of uncertainty, with each source being associated with one firm. A. Cournot Duopoly with Private Demand Risks Let us start our inquiry with a Cournot duopoly model with each firm facing its own demand uncertainty. As in the case of a common risk, there are two Cournot firms—Firm 1 and firm 2. We assume that the demand paramerters al and a2 are random parameters whose joint distribution P(at, dz) is a common * I wish again to express my indebtedness to the persons and institutions listed in the first footnote of Part I of this paper.

Information Sharing of Sensitive Business Data with Employees

Abstract: This study reexamines the determinants and consequences of publicly traded manufacturing firms sharing sensitive business data with their producation employees. Using more detailed information sharing variables, we find that providing a variety of types of information is associated with higher compensation, that firms are less likely to share relatively more senistive information with employees, and that sharing future market strategies is negatively related to various measures of firm profitability. The implications for firm and public policies are also discussed.

Information Issues in Model Specification

Abstract: This paper explores the tradeoffs and information issues in model specification, i.e., choosing the appropriate level of detail and precision of decision support models. For many real-time and distributed decision problems, decision-makers face a wide spectrum of information gathering choices that vary in the amount and quality of information as well as their associated costs and delays. Modeling these problems raises several operational and strategic questions including: • how much and what type of information to acquire before making a decision. • what protocol to use for exchanging information among multiple decision-makers. • what organization and information structure e.g., centralized, coordinated, distributed to use for effective information sharing and decision-making. We highlight the modeling issues and tradeoffs using examples from production planning, distributed processing, and network routing, and draw upon research in diverse fields, including information economics and game theory, knowledge logic in computer science, and distributed computation, to obtain model specification insights. Our discussions emphasize and illustrate two main model specification themes. First, acquiring additional information often has diminishing returns in terms of the quality of decisions suggested by the model; therefore, an imprecise model based on partial information might be more appropriate than using a detailed and accurate model that identifies 'optimal' decisions. Concepts from information economics and team theory provide a framework for analyzing this tradeoff. We also briefly discuss some heuristic methods to identify effective information gathering strategies. Our second theme applies to systems consisting of several decision-makers who make interdependent decisions. In this context, the decision model for each agent must be based on an understanding of what information to exchange, how frequently, and what protocol to use for exchanging information. We illustrate how complete information sharing among distributed decision-makers might even be impossible because of a possible dead-lock in decision-making. This game-theoretic phenomenon has implications for designing the organization structure, information systems, and communication protocols to support multi-agent decision-making.

Contracts in Database Federations

Abstract: A model for information sharing in a loose association of information/database systems is proposed Such a system is referred to as a federation, where the fundamental characteristic is the autonomy of the member systems (the nodes) The model for sharing is based on the establishment of bilateral agreements between nodes These agreements are represented by contracts, the terms of which define the rules for information exchange The model provides flexibility for resource sharing and for cooperation in a decentralized setting

Does Anybody Have a Map? Accessing Information in the Internet's Virtual Library.

Abstract: The rapid advances in computer networking technology in the late 1980s have led to a corresponding increase in locations wishing to participate in computer networks. As more sites adopt a common communication protocol and connect to local networks that may themselves be connected into a national network, opportunities abound for information sharing and collaborative research. A major roadblock to experiencing the benefits of this connectivity, however, is the difficulty of knowing what information is available on computers throughout the network. Several approaches are being explored to provide access to this “virtual library.” A combination of library and computer networking skills will be necessary to design appropriate tools that will allow all users to participate in the developing networked information environment.

Information Sharing in Credit Markets

Abstract: We present a model with adverse selection where information sharing between lenders arises endogenously. Lenders' incentives to share information about borrowers are positively related to the mobility and heterogeneity of borrowers, to the size of the credit market and to advances in information technology; on the other hand, such incentives are reduced by the fear of competition from potential entrants. In addition, information sharing increases the volume of lending when adverse selection is so severe that safe borrowers drop out of the market. These predictions are supported by international and historical evidence in the context of the consumer credit market. Information sharing is widespread in countries, such as Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, where the geographical mobility of households is high and the consumer credit market is deep; while in countries with low mobility and thin consumer credit markets, e.g. Belgium and Italy, information sharing is minimal. The same predictions are also supported by US historical data.

Data sharing in a large heterogeneous environment

Abstract: The issues involved in sharing information among a large collection of independent databases is explored. Some of the distinguishing features that characterize such large-scale environments (such as size, autonomy, and heterogeneity) are discussed. A multistep information sharing process for those systems is outlined and an architecture supporting that exchange is presented. A detailed description of a working prototype based on this architecture and some measurements of its performance are provided. >

Team Coordination: Information Sharing + Policies

Abstract: This paper describes a framework for defining software maintenance processes that involve a team of programmers. Previously, this environment modelled the software maintenance process primarily in terms of the activities of a single programmer [7, 21. Any process description framework involving a team must deal with two major considerations: how cooperation between team members is fostered and how the cooperation can be coordinated and controlled to prevent inconsistencies from arising (i.e., the "crowd control" aspects of the process). A major underlying principle in the design of our framework is the observation that there are absolutely no unique resolutions to the above issues. Much will depend on the nature of the organizational context into which the framework is introduced team size, team goals, organizational goals and priorities. Therefore, we have separated our framework into two layers, scrupulously avoiding any coupling between the basic features required for cooperation to occur from the policies and restrictions governing cooperation. Many existing approaches do not make this distinction information is shared in a manner that will permit only certain cooperation policies to be implemented. For example, take the Revision Control System (RCS) [6]. It is impossible to use the RCS model of shared information (a centralized file structure) without also using its conservative locking regime (which is really a policy matter). Even more sophisticated schemes have the same sort of drawback. We have tried to remedy this in our framework. In our approach, the foundational layer is the shared informalaon model that supplies the basic mechanisms to enable different programmers to work on the same software system. The outer layer is the pol icy layer that provides the set of agreed upon rules and restrictions governing the shared information. The policy is sensitive to the organizational context, and different rules in this layer may be used in different situations. The shared information model can support a wide variety of coordination policies and controls.

Issues in data sharing and access: an industry perspective.

Abstract: Epidemiologic data sharing and access, and information sharing and access, are complex issues with no consensus within the industrial community. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction, as well as some personal perspectives, to the issues of data access and sharing. These perspectives include a discussion of types of data sharing, advantages and barriers to openness, and alternatives that lower the need for sharing of the raw data.

Prototyping a text information management system

Abstract: Collection, selection, analysis and dissemination of technical and commercial information are the basic functions of an information centre in a typical corporate scientific establishment. Information is sourced internally and from a variety of commercial information vendors world‐wide. The development of a prototype computer‐based system is described which provides these facilities to users on a distributed computer network. Although designed for scientists, the concept could be equally well applied throughout industry and commerce. The information management environment facilitates access to a wide range of bibliographic and textual databases, offers automated document ordering and provides comprehensive facilities for interactive handling of document surrogates. It preserves the investment made in data collection by promoting information sharing and re‐use via interpersonal transfer and personal database preparation.

Concerning A-sharp music network

Abstract: This article is an edited and updated version of a paper presented at the 1989 ALA National Conference, Dallas, TX, on the Arts Section Program "Networks for Cooperation in the Arts." The paper focuses on the cooperative music endeavors of five diverse networks and consortia. Additionally, issues concerning the use of shared automated systems, utilization of a statewide information network, and informal organizational structures for the purpose of information sharing will be discussed. Problems and solutions to issues of cooperation as well as any special features and completed projects will be presented for each network and consortium.

The strategic pricing center: coordinating marketing, engineering and manufacturing for competitive advantage

Abstract: It is noted that the complexity of the pricing decision demands coordinated information sharing and concerted effort between marketing, engineering, and manufacturing to ensure the implementation of effective pricing strategy. The concept of the pricing center is introduced as the organizational framework for the development of pricing strategy. Marketing, engineering, and manufacturing participants in the pricing center can contribute to the development of effective pricing strategy through the use of techniques such as economic value to the customer (EVC) analysis, competitor analysis, value engineering, design for manufacturability, and quality function deployment. >

A Framework for Estimating the Cost to Build Trusted Computer Systems

Abstract: Advances in the field of computer network technology have allowed unprecedented levels of information sharing to be possible between users. As a result, there has been an increased need within the Department of Defense (DOD) to protect sensitive information and data sources against unauthorized access or disclosure. Reflective of this, the number of USAF Electronic Systems Division (ESD) acquisitions being directed to meet stringent security requirements is increasing. Absent from the cost analysis community has been a systematic approach for estimating the resources to build computer systems that are trusted to protect the information they process.

A Model of Information Sharing for Fault-Tolerant Flexible Manufacturing Systems

Abstract: It is extremely important for a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) to have the ability to recover errors or failures automatically since an FMS is error-prone, and it is usually a complex and large-scale system consisting of multi-cells and multi-stages of work centers. We hereby propose a formal FMS information model and formulate an approach to automatic error-recovery in the FMS based on information sharing among different work stations.

Influencing public policy through information sharing

Abstract: The data collected in electronic databases by government agencies, universities, and private organizations could be of use to a public increasingly interested in participating in public policy formation. However, because most users lack skill in communicating with computers and because institutions resist the dissemination of databases, this information is not widely accessible to the public in forms it can use. The authors propose establishing a public access 'data hub' to process requests for database access, download a copy of the requested data from the original source database (databases would not reside at the hub), and display the data in the form requested. The 'bridge' between user and data would be an interface to process the request for data and then shape and interpret the data for the user. A single interface would allow users access to information that resides on many different computers without their having to learn to 'talk' to each different system. Helping to design and implement this interface would be the task of the professional communicator. >