The purpose of this paper is to examine the existing risks for the offshore project and risk weighting using the fuzzy best worst method (FBWM). In offshore oil projects, we face six major risks. Each of these risks is divided into smaller risks leaving us to have a total of 34 risks. Some of these risks are internal and some are external risks. In this method, first, the experts of this field determined the best and the worst type of risk. Then, using the experts’ opinions, the study compared the remaining risks with the two selected risks and the other weights are determined. In our survey, “Technical Risk and Project Execution” is the most important risk factor followed by “Political Risk and Sanctions”, “Market risk”, “Manage-ment risk”, “Financial risk and currency fluctuations” and “Environmental risk”.

Authors developed a two-period buyback pricing model which shows a competition between independent repair shop, third party remanufacturer (TPR) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for market share in spare parts business after the end of warranty period. Remanufacturing is a profitable option for OEM rather than producing new parts after finishing the warranty period for satisfying the demand of spare parts. OEM acquires damaged/broken parts from local independent repair shop to remanufacture those parts. But if there existed any Third Party Remanufacturer (TPR) then it would lead competition and would decrease the market share of OEM in sales of spare parts. TPR is basically independent remanufacturer. OEM has no control over the activity of the TPR for selling remanufactured spare parts after finishing warranty period of the products. In this paper, authors considered a supply chain model, where independent repair shop is responsible for handling the repair process and both OEM and TPR are remanufacturing spare parts. Repair shop may procure spare parts from both OEM and TPR. A discount is given on the price of the spare parts by TPR which attracts the customers. Repair shop also tries to sell repaired parts at an attractive discounted price. Both TPR and OEM need to collect broken/damaged parts to remanufacture them for maintaining an inventory of spare parts. This paper aimed to develop a deterministic framework for finding optimal buyback price for the OEM and the impact of different parameters on the profitability of spare parts management for individual players of supply chain management.

Project portfolio selection is a major issue in organizations, which involves a complex pro-cess from the first step to the end step of project selection. In order to pursue the organizations’ financial and physical constraints, choosing the most suitable portfolio of projects is necessary. Organizations have a number of constraints to select a portfolio of projects that must be considered. Different interactions are considered between the proposed projects. For example, resource constraints, the possibility of transferring liquidity resources that are not consumed over a period to the next, the interdependence between projects, and the synergistic impact of the projects are important. In this paper, an exponential function is considered for synergistic impact of the projects that make the problem more similar to the real-world problems. An illustrative example is used to demonstrate the appropriate application of the proposed model.

The use of social media becomes a common habit in today's community and routinely used to interact with the community member. Also, many companies used social media to create a social media community concerning the products and services provided to strengthen the company's brand. This study surveys as many as 231 respondents and data analysis uses the PLS method utilizing smart PLS software. The result reveals that the use of information technology that is getting faster with high-speed data accessibility enhances the intensity of interaction between the community member with the path coefficient value of 0.605. Furthermore, the use of information technology with high-speed data accessibility also increase the satisfaction of movie trailer viewers with the path coefficient value of 0.392 since it can provide excitement and entertainment. Besides, the increased use of information technology provides higher satisfaction to the audience. The results also show that the presence of a social media community could provide satisfaction for movie trailer viewers with a coefficient of 0.332. The availability of films in the community provides excellent interactive communication between users. This research has focused only on the use of information technology in the respondents who watch movie trailers and is limited to a region of East Java province, Indonesia. Further research is required to be performed, which focuses on different types of social media and context and needs to analyze the comment of the film viewer in order to provide a better benefit on the latest films and for the entertainment company.

Suitable selection of various machining parameters for wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) process heavily relies on the operator’s experience and manufacturer’s technologies because of their numerous and diverse operating ranges. Artificial neural networks have been introduced as an effective tool to predict values of responses and input parameters of different machining processes through forward and reverse modeling approaches respectively. This paper mainly focuses on predicting values of some machining responses, like machining rate, surface roughness, dimensional deviation and wire wear ratio using feed forward back propagation artificial neural network based on six WEDM process parameters, such as pulse on time, pulse off time, peak current, spark gap voltage, wire feed and wire tension. The corresponding reverse model is also developed to recommend the optimal settings of WEDM process parameters for achieving the desired responses according to the requirements of the end users. These modeling approaches are quite efficient to predict the values of machining responses as well as process parameter settings with reduced time and effort which otherwise have to be determined experimentally based on trial and error method. The predicted results are found to be in well congruence with the previously obtained experimental observations.

Several studies in the past have reviewed numerous factors that become the consideration of the customers in performing transactions through online sites. In this study, the researcher investigates whether consumer review, web design and online advertisement variables are important for customers in performing transaction through e-commerce. The results of the study contribute for the providers of the online shopping sites in defining the future strategies. At the same time, the results of the study are also expected to provide contributions for the future studies that focus on the e-commerce from the perspective of consumer review, web design and online advertisement. Furthermore, in analyzing the respondents’ characteristics the researcher runs the SPSS Software and for analyzing the data the researcher runs the PLS 3.0. Then, the survey technique in the form of questionnaire distribution implemented toward the respondents who used to perform transactions through online shopping sites. The research finds that consumer review, web design and online advertisement influence on online purchase intention.

Reliability is one of the most important characteristics of the electrical and mechanical systems with applications in the space communication industries, internet networks, telecommunication systems, power generation systems, and productive facilities. What adds to the importance of reliability in these systems are system complications, nature of competitive markets, and increasing production costs due to failures. This paper investigates availability optimization of a system using both repairable and non-repairable components, simultaneously. The availability-redundancy allocation problems involve the determination of component availability (i.e., life time and repair time of the components) and the redundancy levels that produce maximum system availability. These problems are often subject to some constraints on their components such as cost, weight, and volume. To maximize the availability and to minimize the total cost of the system, a new Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP) model is presented. To solve the proposed model, an improved version of the genetic algorithm is designed as an efficient meta-heuristic algorithm. Finally, in order to verify the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, a numerical example of a system is presented that consists of both repairable and non-repairable components.

The study sought to find out the effect of Technological Readiness Index (TRI) on the adoption of the inDubai application by potential tourists to Dubai. The finding showed a distinct relationship between TRI dimensions and the intention to make use of the inDubai mobile application. The findings of the study further proved that the TRI model as developed by Parasuraman can indeed prove the intention of individuals to adopt a new technology. The study showed that if the first two dimensions (Optimism and Innovation) are present, then a traveler will most likely see the perceived benefits of using the product or technology which in turn will lead to a positive intention to adopt such a technology. The findings also showed that if the last two dimensions (Insecurity and Discomfort) are present then such individuals exhibiting these behaviors are less likely to want to adopt this new technology. This implies that applications like the inDubai application and other similar applications need to address issues that lead to insecurity and discomfort among users if they are to attract a lot of adopters.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the inter-relationship among the indices that influence on knowledge sharing systems in lessons learned systems. To do this, while reviewing the literature, the researchers first identified the indices affecting KSS; then, they collected the related data through the use of a researcher-devised questionnaire. The results of surveying the indices of knowledge sharing system based on DEMATEL system analysis indicated that there were systemic relationships with the predominant characteristic of impressibility among the indices of the system. Investigating the internal relationship among the indices of knowledge sharing in learned lessons systems showed that in order to create a positive as well as optimum effect on knowledge sharing processes, the first priority should be updating and reinforcing “communication channels”; also, “reward systems and processes” should be reinforced as the second priority in line with the strengthening of the purposeful process of knowledge sharing system.