The Inland Empire Minority Business Enterprise Center (IE MBEC) is a federally funded business service provider for existing and prospective minority owned businesses in the Inland Empire. We began this case study by interviewing the IE MBEC to learn how they operated and what business services they offered. Four spatial applications were identified that would help improve the businesses of their clients. These four applications included geo-coding, geo-demographics, cartography, and site selection. The training sessions proceeded smoothly and the study team left the IE MBEC very capable in providing spatial services to their minority business clients. A proposed follow up cost-benefit assessment will yield valuable information on how sustainable this model is for the IE MBEC and for other businesses that have or will adopt a desktop GIS approach for business decision support systems.
Using surveys, on-site interviews of approximately 200 publicly-traded pharmaceutical firms in the United States, and a matching dataset with 42,849 observations of pharmaceutical patent citations, we combine both quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate the relations between geographic proximity to innovation resources and stock returns. We develop a geographic innovation index to capture the key geographic factors that might have a positive impact on the firm's knowledge creation. We then examine the stock investment performance in terms of risk-adjusted returns for companies that have greater proximity to geographic innovation resources versus those companies that have less proximity to geographic innovation resources. We find that investments in companies with greater proximity to geographic innovation resources tend to achieve better risk-adjusted returns in the stock markets.
We introduce the concept of an Intelligent Location System (ILS) in which the spatial component is used as a key factor in a company's business strategies. We then present a four-step methodology for implementing an ILS in a company. Finally, we illustrate the methodology by presenting a Mexican car accident insurance company's emergency call center as a case study.
Though the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in many governmental agencies and utility companies has been extensive its use in businesses has been limited. One possible explanation for this lag is the lack of infusion of GIS and spatial analysis concepts/applications in business school curriculum. This results in a lack of proper training for business students (the future knowledge workers and managers) and thus a lack of GIS applications implemented in businesses. In order to address this issue, it is important to understand the current status of the infusion of GIS and SA concepts/applications in business schools. This paper reports the findings from an exploratory empirical study. The findings have implications for business schools as well as companies that develop and market GIS and SA tools/technologies.
Finding optimal offshoring or offshore outsourcing locations has
traditionally focused on analyzing and evaluating factors of production at
several pre-selected locations. This process has three disadvantages
industry-specific input data is rarely available at sufficient levels of detail
it depends on the assumption that the preselected subset of countries contains the optimal location
it is costly
The approach suggested here
uses measures constructed from exports based on the theory of comparative advantage
employs GIS for quick scanning of all countries in the world as potential offshore locations
is relatively cheap and can thus both complement and improve the traditional approach
Moenius (Measuring Comparative Advantage: A Ricardian Approach, 2007) shows
that standard measures of comparative advantage are invalid for comparisons
across industries and over time, but also shows a method to salvage that problem.
Moreover, comparative advantage is influenced both by production costs as well
as trade costs due to the geographic location of an exporting country relative
to its most important trading partners. He therefore shows how to decompose
standard measures of comparative advantage into a relative production cost
measure and a relative trade cost measure. Applying this decomposition, all
potential off-shore locations are mapped according to their comparative advantage,
their relative production cost advantage, and their relative trade cost advantage.
A firm can then select offshoring locations that match its relative strength
in either production or transaction cost management. Finally, these selected
locations can then be evaluated for stability and future prospects based on
historical values of these three indices.
Over the past 20 years, spatial technologies have penetrated almost every aspect of public administration and utility management, evolving from initial facility-based configurations into complex enterprise-based models that today communicate information to stakeholders throughout jurisdictions, serving as significant decision-support systems. The application of the technology to the world of private business during this period have, at best, been sporadic and dispersed, much as in the initial stages of development that were experienced in the early-nineties in local government. This paper investigates the scope for adapting the enterprise spatial model to serve an entire business need, skipping the steps of slow, restricted introduction of the technology into specific and easily recognizable areas of business application. The assumption is that, over the strategic period, benefits and costs of the planned approach will be far better optimized than gradual introduction over time.
Case study analysis was conducted on a small blinds, shutters, and draperies firm in southern California. Located in a rapidly growing urban area, the firm faces increasing competition and a cyclical downtown in housing. GIS has been implemented to support the firm to gain knowledge of its own marketing and sales history, perform geodemographic analysis, increase marketing knowledge of its very large territory, and as a technique to assist in optimizing routing of field representatives. An approach to cost-benefit analysis of GIS is described but awaits management approval to conduct it. Case-study results are evaluated in terms of the GIS and business literature.
The ubiquity of location-based services calls for research on mobility and movement that could contribute to their formalization and computer implementation. This paper takes a step in this direction by developing a grammar of movement that is, of different types of movement relative to various targets, surfaces, and enclosures. Adopting an agent-based modeling approach, this grammar follows a bottom-up method in which complex movements are built from more primitive ones. The paper also introduces basic concepts such as indexical representations, cost surface, and local opportunity surface that would support the formalism. Application of this approach to a number of topics in location-based services are discussed.
This paper reports on a Geographic Information System (GIS) that is currently under development to communicate public health issues related to rural and urban road transportation safety through a publicly accessible website (www.saferoadmaps.org). This GIS integrates a range of spatial data regarding motor vehicle crashes, transportation policy legislation, and driver behavioral data. It is anticipated that this GIS will help raise awareness and change fundamental perceptions regarding the magnitude, risk factors, and impacts of motor vehicle crashes.
This paper presents a research framework to assess the business value of GIS at the process level, in addition to the firm level. The research goal is to evaluate GIS benefits at the process level, which has not been done. A value-chain framework for GIS processes is presented that assigns known GIS benefits to value chain process categories. Three hypotheses are developed which test the relationships of perceptual GIS benefits on perceptual and objective measures of firm performance, and test the relationship of perceptual and objective measures at the firm level. The possible implications of the research are examined.
This paper examines the clustering patterns and changes in the service industries and healthcare industry in particular in the United States at county scale for the past three decades (1969 to 2000). This study integrates Geographic Information System (GIS) and various spatial-temporal analytical tools to conduct empirical regional economic analysis. The method is built upon a loose-coupling of the GIS module using ArcGIS, and various statistical and temporal analytical modules using Excel, Visual Basic, SPSS, and SAS. This method allows both spatial and temporal analysis of industry clusters and regional economic development. Analytical tools such as the location quotient (LQ) technique Moran's I statistics are employed. The paper applies this method to trace and analyze both spatial and temporal clustering patterns and spillover effects on the service industries as a whole and healthcare industry in particular across the sixty-two counties in New York State over the past three decades.
Precision agriculture is integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies to provide extensive, detailed information on crop growth, crop health, crop yield, water absorption, nutrient levels, topography, and soil variability. Precision agriculture technologies provide mechanisms to manage areas according to the production potential. This paper describes the uses of GIS and GPS systems and the disadvantages and advantages of precision agriculture to farmers.
In this paper we estimate spatiotemporal models of neighborhood average residential home prices and use them to predict individual ones. In traditional home models, variations in home prices are explained by house and spatial attributes. The spatiotemporal specification adopted here adds temporal economic changes. Three models are proposed using census tract, ZIP code, and assessors’ parcel numbers to define neighborhood resolutions. The equations are estimated using quarterly panel data over the period 2000–2004 in four cities from four different counties in Southern California. Estimated equations are then used to forecast 2005 prices. Our results suggest that forecasts obtained using city neighborhood average price models have advantage over forecasts obtained using equations estimated from city disaggregated data.
Panelists:
Dick America, Georgetown University
Eric Fournier, Samford University
Julio Rivera, Carthage College
Nanda Viswanathan, Delaware State University
Dan Williams, Lyndon State College
Panelists:
Cathy Bolsover, CAZ Appraisal Group
Ranadip Bose, S.B. Friedman & Co.
Vincent McCoy, Inland Empire Small Business Development Center
GIS Certification in Business Discussion 2:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m., Astor Room
(More information on this session coming soon.)
Closing Session Featured Speaker 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m., Astor Room Jerry Platt, University of Redlands
Register today at the educator or small
business† rate
of $175, and you’re eligible to attend the entire 3-day conference and education
program.
†Note: The Small Business Administration definition of
a small business is one with $6.5 million or less in revenue (for most retail
and service industries). If you have questions on whether you qualify as a small business as defined by the
SBA, please e-mail BizSummitregistration@esri.com.
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