Caught in the Web? Addictive behavior in cyberspace and the role of goal-orientation

New online 3-D virtual worlds are complex and differ significantly from each other. In this study we examine whether the type of virtual world is likely to make a difference on how addictive behavior develops and its subsequent outcomes. We examine the effect of goal-orientation on the degree to which cognitive absorption within the virtual world results in addiction and in the impact of addiction on continuance and purchasing intentions. Using surveys conducted in World of Warcraft (goal-oriented) and Second Life (experience-oriented) virtual worlds and analysis via ANOVA, we find that while cognitive absorption contributes to the development of addiction, which subsequently leads to increased continuance and spending intentions in goal-oriented virtual worlds, none of these relationships hold in the case of the experience-oriented world. Goal-oriented virtual worlds provide a problematic conduit for addictive behavior and marketing manipulation and the authors believe that they would benefit from further attention by policy-makers. Experience-oriented virtual worlds do not appear to provide the same dangers and would appear to be more healthy avenues for marketing-consumer engagement.     

Estimating Quality‐adjusted Price Changes: Method and Application to VCRs

This paper uses scanner data to generate estimates of quality‐adjusted price changes for video‐recorders. We use hedonic regressions to derive estimates of the changing worth of each quality component. These are then applied to weighted changes in the mix of quality attributes of products to derive estimates of quality‐adjusted price (QAP) changes. The data source used is electronic‐point‐of‐sale (EPOS) scanner data that are available for a wide range of goods. This study provides an example of how such methods can be more widely applied. The estimates of QAP changes correspond to constant‐utility, (hedonic) cost‐of‐living indexes defined in economic theory as the ratio of expenditure functions at constant utility allowing for changing prices and characteristics of goods. This method is proposed as an improvement on the existing direct method , which takes its estimates directly from the coefficients associated with 'time dummies' in a hedonic regression. We finally undertake a matching process, akin to that used by statistical offices, and compare the results. Direct comparisons with RPI estimates and these hedonic approaches are not easy since the approaches use quite different data sets. Our replication of a procedure akin to that used for the RPI on the scanner data set provides insights into sources of potential bias.     

Using Scanner Data to Estimate Country Price Parities: A Hedonic Regression Approach

This paper uses scanner data from the bar-code readers of retailers to provide estimates of inter-country price parities at the level of the basic heading. The use of such data is appealing given its extensive coverage of transactions, information on weights, prices and characteristics of items at a highly detailed level. The study uses dummy variable hedonic and exact/superlative hedonic index number formulations applied to an inter-country context for both bilateral and multilateral comparisons. Unlike conventional methods, such methods are not confined to matched samples comparisons and thus make use of the entire sample. Their application extends to price survey data using checklists on characteristics. The application is to scanner data on about 1 million transactions for television sets over two months in three countries. It is, to the authors' knowledge, the first such use of scanner data and application of the above hedonic frameworks in this context.     

ELEMENTARY AGGREGATES, MICRO-INDICES AND SCANNER DATA: SOME ISSUES IN THE COMPILATION OF CONSUMER PRICE INDICES

The paper argues for the use of scanner data from EPOS systems for use in the compilation of consumer price indices. A number of methods of calculating micro-indices from such data are outlined. Scanner data for colour television sets in the U.K. are used as an example. The Tornqvist chained index is used as a benchmark against which alternative formulations, including those based on representative products, can be judged, the errors often being substantial. The paper argues for the use of scanner data, illustrates methods of compiling micro-indices and points to the potential for serious errors from conventional methods.     

ACCOUNTING FOR THE EFFECTS OF NEW AND DISAPPEARING GOODS USING SCANNER DATA

With the "discovery" of scanner data by statistical agencies and researchers comes a wealth of new information upon which price index calculations can be based. Old problems, such as the appearance and disappearance of goods over time, are likely to be an important feature of such data. However, given that scanner data includes the prices and quantities of the population of transactions we have more information than is traditionally available to deal with the new and disappearing goods problem. We adopt a recently developed approach using the Constant Elasticity of Substitution cost function to provide a detailed empirical analysis of the effects of new and disappearing goods for an Australian scanner data set of supermarket products. Our results indicate that the failure to account for new and disappearing goods in the cost-of-living index leads to a significant upward bias.     

WEB-IS (integrated system): an overall view

WEB-IS, Web-based Integrated System, allows remote, interactive visualization of large-scale 3-D data over the Internet, along with data analysis and data mining. In this paper, we discuss the overall structure of WEB-IS. Up until now we have developed three sub-modules geared towards geophysical problems. WEB-IS1 allows geoscientists to navigate through their 3-D geophysical data, such as seismic structures or numerical simulations, and interactively analyze the statistics or apply data-mining techniques, such as cluster analysis. WEB-IS2 lets a user control Amira (a powerful 3-D visualization package) remotely and analyze, render and view large datasets across the Internet. WEB-IS3 is an imaging service that enables the user to control the scale of features to view through interactive zooming. In the near future, we propose to integrate the three components together through a middleware framework called NaradaBrokering (iNtegrated Asynchronous Real-time Adaptive Distributed Architecture, a distributed messaging infrastructure that can be used to intelligently route data between the originators and registered consumers) without regard for time or location. As a result, WEB-IS will improve its scalability and acquire properties of fault-tolerance. WEB-IS uses a combination of Java, C++, and through the use of NaradaBrokering will seamlessly integrate the server-side processing and user interaction utilities on the client. The server takes care of the processor intensive tasks, such as visualization and data mining, and sends either the resulting bitmap image or statistical results to the middleware across the Internet for viewing. WEB-IS is an easy-to-use service, which will eventually help geoscientists collaborate from different sites in a natural manner. It will be very useful in the next 10 years because of the increasing number of space missions and geophysical campaigns.     

一种广义虚拟经济的分类方法

本文将广义虚拟经济划分为可直接定价的广义虚拟经济和不可直接定价的广义虚拟经济。又根据供给弹性的差别将可直接定价的广义虚拟经济划分为强广义虚拟经济和弱广义虚拟经济。强广义虚拟经济的价值主要体现在租金上,而弱广义虚拟经济的价值主要体现在产品的多样性上。不可直接定价的广义虚拟经济通过非价格机制来实现,根据不同的社会关系范围,不可直接定价的广义虚拟价值实现的方式有很大差异,在非匿名的小范围内主要以亲缘关系和在共同体关系为基础,而在匿名的大范围内中主要以道德和利他主义为基础。     

虚拟企业研究回顾与展望

虚拟企业自1991年首次被提出以来便成为企业实践和学术研究热点，至今已有30年历史，取得大量理论研究成果，迫切需要进行系统梳理和总结。首先采用质性整合法，对国外虚拟企业研究成果进行梳理，按照研究主题，将其分为三大类：虚拟企业起源与概念界定、运营管理研究和协调管理机制研究。然后，采用文献计量分析方法，并结合因子聚类、多维尺度分析等手段，对国内虚拟企业研究成果进行全面分析，得出研究热点问题和核心作者群体，并基于研究内容和方法两个维度，将国内虚拟企业研究初步划分为4个学派，将其研究过程划分为3个阶段、4个步骤。最后，分析虚拟企业研究存在的问题与不足，对该领域未来发展前景和趋势进行展望并提出建议。     

Current Trends and Demands in Visualization in the Geosciences

Geosciences, along with many other disciplines in science and engineering, faces an exponential increase in the amount of data generated from observation, experiment and large-scale, high-resolution 3-D numerical simulations. In this communication we describe the fundamentals of visualization necessary to meet these challenges. We present several alternative methodologies such as 2D/3D feature extraction, segmentation methods, and flow topology, to help better understand the physical structure of the data. We use AMIRA from TGS to demonstrate our concepts. Examples are drawn from fields in computational fluid dynamics, 3-D mantle convection and seismic tomography. Finally, we present our perspective on the future of visualization.     

消费理性成瘾、公共健康与政府行为-基于消费者对碳酸饮料过度消费行为的案例研究

本文以碳酸饮料为例,从健康经济学的角度探究消费者过度消费不健康食品的经济学成因。本文发现,消费者对不健康食品的过度消费,是由于其消费行为所具有的理性成瘾特性决定的。这种特性导致了消费者对不健康食品的需求价格弹性过低。市场无法通过自身的价格机制,将此类产品的消费量保持在一个健康的水平。即此类商品的消费市场中存在着市场失灵现象。政府应该对不健康食品的消费市场进行积极地干预,以纠正市场失灵。     

顾客参与对顾客感知虚拟价值的影响研究

本研究将广义虚拟经济的二元价值容介态理论引入到顾客价值的研究框架中,将顾客感知价值分为实体价值(即实用价值)和虚拟价值(即享乐价值),构建了参与情境下对不同的顾客感知价值类型的影响差异模型。研究结果表明:(1)顾客参与的三个维度:信息分享、责任行为和人际互动都对实用价值有显著正向的影响;(2)信息分享、责任行为和人际互动都对享乐价值有显著正向的影响;(3)实用价值和享乐价值都对顾客忠诚有显著正向的影响。     

虚拟资源在我国粮食问题中的综合应用分析

本文在参照虚拟水概念基础上,引用了虚拟土、虚拟能概念,提出了虚拟资源概念。对2003年南北方主要以粮食为载体的虚拟水、虚拟土、虚拟能含量进行了量化分析与实证研究,得出北方粮食虚拟水含量高于南方0．18m3／kg,并且每万吨粮食需要多占用0．6亩土地,只在虚拟能消耗上略低于南方0．01吨标煤／吨。2003年在国内粮食理想平衡状态下,南方须从北方调入2964．5万吨粮食以填补需求缺口,相当于从北方携带了655．2亿立方米虚拟水、7411万公顷虚拟土和1041．8万吨标煤的虚拟资源。这在一定时期内平衡了地区粮食的供求,可这能否在全国范围内实现资源的最优配置还值得商榷。     

International trade of scarce water

Recent analyses of the evolution and structure of trade in virtual water revealed that the number of trade connections and volume of virtual water trade have more than doubled over the past two decades, and that developed countries increasingly import water embodied in goods from the rest of the world to alleviate pressure on domestic water resources. At the same time, as demand continues to increase and climate change threatens to alter hydrological cycles, water scarcity is a growing problem. Does research into virtual water trade need to consider water scarcity and differentiate flows out of water-scarce regions from flows out of water-abundant regions? Previous studies sum and compare virtual water volumes originating in countries experiencing vastly different degrees of water scarcity. We therefore incorporate water scarcity into an assessment of global virtual water flows. We use input–output analysis to include indirect virtual water flows. We find that the structure of global virtual water networks changes significantly after adjusting for water scarcity.     

虚拟团队交互记忆系统对团队绩效的影响!——任务复杂性的调节作用

利用对45个虚拟团队的调研数据,通过相关分析和回归分析,探讨了虚拟团队的虚拟性对交互记忆系统的影响、交互记忆系统的各维度对团队绩效的影响及任务复杂性对两者间关系的调节作用。研究结果显示:虚拟团队的虚拟性和交互记忆系统之间存在相关关系;虚拟团队交互记忆系统的3个维度(专长度、可信度和协调度)对团队绩效具有较强的预测作用;任务复杂性对交互记忆系统与团队绩效的关系产生负向调节作用。     

社会资本与技术支持对学术虚拟社区知识共享的影响——基于科学网平台的知识共享要素分析

学术虚拟社区是广大学者和科研工作者进行知识交流与探讨的重要平台，也是学术碰撞和知识创新的新阵地。通过构建社会资本与技术支持对用户知识共享行为影响的理论模型，探讨社会资本（关系资本、结构资本、认知资本）和技术支持（感知有用性、感知易用性）对社区用户知识共享行为（知识共享质量和数量）的作用机理。结果表明，关系资本与结构资本分别对学术虚拟社区知识共享质量和数量具有显著正向影响，属于持续动力。伴随其它因素介入，认知资本对学术社区知识共享数量产生正向影响，技术支持对知识共享的影响具有显著差异，感知易用性对学术社区知识共享质量和数量均具有显著正向影响，而感知有用性对知识共享质量具有显著负向影响。基于此，提出社区管理者应采取措施拓展用户社会资本并加强平台技术支持，以实现学术虚拟社区可持续发展。     

gLucifer: next generation visualization framework for high-performance computational geodynamics

High-performance computing provides unprecedented capabilities to produce higher resolution 4-D models in a fraction of time. Thus, the need exists for a new generation of visualization systems able to maintain parity with the enormous volume of data generated. In attempting to write this much data to disk, each computational step introduces a significant performance bottleneck, yet most existing visualization software packages inherently rely on reading data in from a dump file. Available packages make this assumption of postprocessing at quite a fundamental level and are not very well suited for plotting very large numbers of specialized particles. This necessitates the creation of a new visualization system that meets the needs of large-scale geodynamic modeling. We have developed such a system, gLucifer, using a software framework approach that allows efficient reuse of our efforts in other areas of research. gLucifer is capable of producing movies of a 4-D data set “on the fly” (simultaneously with running the parallel scientific application) without creating a performance bottleneck. By eliminating most of the human efforts involved in visualizing results through postprocessing, gLucifer reconnects the scientist to the numerical experiment as it unfolds. Data sets that were previously very difficult to even manage may be efficiently explored and interrogated without writing to disk, and because this approach is based entirely on memory distributed across as many processors as are being utilized by the scientific application, the visualization solution is scalable into terabytes of data being rendered in real time.     

治理机制对顾客参与价值共创行为的影响——虚拟品牌社区的实证研究

虚拟品牌社区是企业与顾客进行价值共创的重要平台,顾客参与价值共创行为对企业长远发展具有十分重要的作用。现有研究多是基于不同的理论从顾客视角出发探索顾客参与价值共创行为受到的心理动机和个人特征等因素的影响,鲜有从企业视角出发,探索治理机制对虚拟品牌社区中顾客参与价值共创行为的影响。本文立足交易成本理论与社会交换理论,从企业视角切入,引入关系质量作为中介变量,构建虚拟品牌社区治理机制、关系质量与顾客参与价值共创行为的关系整合模型。采用问卷调查法对模型进行验证,研究结果显示:(1)契约治理机制只对知识贡献行为产生显著正向影响,对顾客公民行为的影响不显著,而关系治理机制对知识贡献行为与顾客公民行为均具有显著正向影响。(2)关系质量在契约治理机制与顾客公民行为的关系中起完全中介作用,在契约治理机制与知识贡献行为、关系治理机制与知识贡献行为以及关系治理机制与顾客公民行为的关系中起部分中介作用。由研究结论可知,虚拟品牌社区一方面应综合运用契约治理机制与关系治理机制来有效地促进顾客参与价值共创行为,以弥补单独运用某一种治理机制存在的不足;另一方面也应注重关系质量在虚拟品牌社区中促进顾客参与价值共创行为的重要作用。这些研究发现为促进虚拟品牌社区的可持续发展提供了有价值的启示。     

基于广义虚拟价值的品牌形象对品牌忠诚影响机制研究

本研究将广义虚拟经济的二元价值容介态理论引入到品牌关系利益的研究框架中,提出消费者—品牌关系中的关系利益是二元价值容介态中虚拟价值的—种形态,分析了品牌形象对品牌忠诚的影响中关系利益所起的中介效应.研究结果表明:(1)消费品市场消费者—品牌关系中的关系利益是一种广义虚拟价值形态,关系利益包括信任利益、选择利益、荣誉利益...     

广义虚拟经济视角下的服务业发展策略研究——以四川省为例

当把传统经济与虚拟经济这两类经济活动融合在一起时,这就形成了广义虚拟经济。本文从广义虚拟经济的视角,以四川省服务业为例,构建了影响服务业发展的物质资源与非物质资源双因素模型,并据此提出了四川省服务业发展策略建议。     

广义虚拟经济理论对中国发展战略的启示

广义虚拟经济理论提供了观察经济社会发展的新视角,世界银行等国际组织和国外学者也在运用类似角度分析研究当今世界经济.中国广义虚拟经济取得快速发展,但仍有巨大发展空间.发展广义虚拟经济是中国的一项战略任务,也是一个长期艰巨的过程.当前,必须树立广义虚拟经济时代的宏观调控理念,探索完善"中国特色"体制,树立世界对中国的信心,...