Advertising with Subjective Horizontal and Vertical Product Differentiation

In this paper, we analyze the impact of advertising on markets wheresubjective horizontal and vertical product differentiation are important. A simple model showshow advertising can be used to create subjective horizontal and vertical differentiation.The model predicts that firms are likely to be symmetric when advertising creates subjective horizontaldifferentiation and that name and generic brands are most likely to coexist in markets whereadvertising creates subjective vertical differentiation. In all cases, the ability toadvertise creates distance between products which increases the market power of firms. Finally, severalreal world examples are used to illustrate the conditions under which the model is most relevant.     

Emerging perspectives on the demonstration as a signature pedagogy in design and technology education

This paper analyses the beliefs of teachers regarding the demonstration as a signature pedagogy in design and technology, where there is a limited body of literature outlining the theory and practice. The demonstration is multifaceted, and effective teachers adopt and adapt a range of skills and values to scaffold learning, including teacher modelling and explaining. The study explores the subjective beliefs of seven practicing teachers through Q Methodology; comparing and analysing the responses of the participants’ subjective beliefs and values, using 62 statements relating to teacher modelling and explaining, developed and refined with teacher educators, and representing the concourse of opinions and perspectives. The sample is purposive, comprised of practicing teachers who are engaged with mentoring trainees in Initial Teacher Education. The findings will represent a snapshot of subjective values of practicing teachers, as part of a discourse on signature pedagogies in design and technology education.     

Subjective Distance and Team Collaboration in Distributed Teams

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that objective distance between team members (e.g., measured in miles) translates directly and fully into subjective distance (i.e., a team's perception of distance between its members). Drawing on social information processing theory, we argue that the level of subjective distance is likely to predict important team outcomes better than the level of objective distance. Using responses from 678 team leaders and team members pertaining to 161 new product development projects in the software industry, our results show that the subjective perception of distance is affected rather by team members' national diversity than their physical distance. We also find that subjective distance has a significant impact on team collaboration, while objective distance measures, however, have no impact on team collaboration. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Network pictures as a research device: Developing a tool to capture actors' perceptions in organizational networks

In business networks, strategic actions are believed to be guided by actors' subjective views or perceptions of their surroundings. Researchers thus consider these perceptions as important for understanding network related phenomena. Despite their recognized importance, there has not been much research aimed at developing a way to systematically capture these perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to show how actors' subjective views of the business network can be analyzed using the research device of network pictures. This is accomplished by developing an empirically derived dimensional model for capturing different aspects of an actor's subjective view. We exemplify how the developed device can be applied, and illustrate how there seem to be ‘types’ of ways of perceiving the business network. This paper therefore represents a methodological contribution through the development of a tool that may change researchers' practices in understanding business networks.     

基于模糊信息熵的港口物流系统评估分析

综合分析了港口物流系统的研究现状,从物流系统角度构建多层次港口物流系统评价指标体系,结合信息熵和模糊综合评价方法,建立了基于模糊信息熵的港口物流系统评估方法。此方法综合了主客观权重,克服了主观因素的影响。最后,选定沿海16个港口的物流系统进行了实证分析,结果表明此方法具有可操作性,为港口企业衡量其物流发展水平提供了参考依据。     

Human Resource Management and Corporate Performance in the UK

The relationship between HRM and performance was explored in 366 UK companies using objective and subjective performance measures and cross‐sectional and longitudinal data. Using objective measures of performance, greater use of HRM is associated with lower labour turnover and higher profit per employee but not higher productivity. After controlling for previous years’ performance, the association ceases to be significant. Using subjective performance estimates, there is a strong association between HRM and both productivity and financial performance. The study therefore confirms the association between HRM and performance but fails to show that HRM causes higher performance.     

一种基于块效应强度检测和测量的新型图像质量评价方法

摘译目前,大部分图像压缩标准使用基于块的变换编码,图像压缩过程中会产生各种压缩效应。其中,块效应是降低图像压缩质量的最常见的问题之一。对块效应进行量化的图像质量客观评价方法可有效地降低块效应的发生,同时也可优化整个图像压缩系统,例如,其可以用于图像预处理（检测和有选择地补偿块效应）中。     

Hedonic Property Valuation Models: Are Subjective Measures of Neighborhood Amenities Needed?

Common applications of hedonic residential property valuation models have relied on proxy measures of neighborhood amenities rather than directly measured subjective evaluations. While this approach simplifies data collection, there is reason to suspect that the use of proxy measures has degraded the accuracy of hedonic valuation models. The extent to which the use of proxy measures may decrease predictive accuracy, and fail to capture the effect of neighborhood amenities, has not been reported previously. The results presented here show that direct subjective measures yield only modest improvements in price prediction. Careful use of proxy measures for neighborhood amenities appears to be cost efficient for large-scale appraisal work.     

Empirical study of the subjective meanings of culture between American and Chinese

Subjective culture is a group's characteristic way of perceiving its social environment. This study analyzes cultural meanings through free verbal association derived from the Associative Group Analysis technique. More than one hundred important and relevant stimulus words were identified. Respondents were asked to list all the ideas associated with each stimulus word. The purpose is to find out the differences and similarities in the subjective meaning of selected words among American, Hong Kong and PRC Chinese. The research results provide empirical data on the understanding of culture-specific meanings of words. It is cultural experience that produces the unique distribution of association in a particular word. The spontaneously emerging response clusters offer deep insights into what is salient and what is dominant in the group's subjective meanings of selected themes.The authors are from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.     

现代企业内部信息主动采纳研究

在信息化背景下,企业内部信息主动采纳是考察信息技术和信息系统(IT/IS)在企业组织内扩散并获得主观采纳的动态过程。本文从关注组织内人的主观心理行为出发,分析已有研究,探索得出个体主动采纳的心理感知要素——自我效能(SE),以及组织内主动采纳的重要外推力——组织支持(OS)。自我效能是主动采纳的个体内源力,组织支持是信息主动采纳过程中的双促进因素,组织支持创造的支持型组织氛围,通过作用于人的主观心理会促进自我效能的提高,并间接促进主动采纳目标的实现。由此,横向建立起内外力整合作用的企业内部信息主动采纳运行关系,同时结合纵向的组织层次结构,按照时序性过程纵横推进,并通过系统自身循环反馈透析主动采纳过程中决策目标的分化—整合,动态完整地揭示企业内部信息主动采纳的运行机理。     

A fuzzy decision model for color reproduction

Color quality appraisal refers to a visual evaluation of an original color image and an assessment of the degree to which that image is matched in photomechanical or electronic reproduction. The evaluation of reproduction quality is quite subjective since it relies on the individual judgments of color technicians who have different perceptions of color and its component qualities. To reduce the amount of rework due to subjective evaluation of color reproduction, an objective model is proposed here. In this model, a fuzzy set of quality factors is introduced and a numerical quality value calculated. This measure is then compared with an acceptable quality value experimentally established for particular customers and printing processes. Finally, the installed model is tested in actual production, and compared with the conventional evaluation method in a cost analysis.     

Flexible Contract Workers in Inferior Jobs: Reappraising the Evidence

There is concern that the increase in flexible employment contracts witnessed in many OECD economies is evidence of a growth in low‐pay, low‐quality jobs. In practice, it is difficult to evaluate the ‘quality’ of flexible jobs. Previous research has primarily investigated objective measures of job quality such as wages and training or subjective measures such as job satisfaction. We jointly evaluate these elements of flexible employment contracts using a job quality index. Analysis of this index demonstrates that flexible jobs are of a lower quality. Differences in the subjective and objective assessment of factors like pay and hours are evident.     

Worker Control as a Facilitator in the Match between Education and Jobs

This article examines the relationship between worker control and subjective underemployment among workers who have more education than is needed for entry into their jobs (credential underemployment). Results indicate that social and technical controls are related to a greater sense of education–job matching. Workers who have credential underemployment are less likely to report subjective underemployment (underutilization and lack of fit between education and job) if they have higher levels of workplace control. This article contains implications for job design and the role of employers and managers in fostering the utilization of their workforces.     

A valuation of viewing public broadcasting with endogeneity: The life satisfaction approach

The evaluation of the amenities and benefits of public broadcasting is crucially important, given the accelerated convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications and the increasing heterogeneity of media use by individuals. We attempted to quantify and monetize the value of viewing public broadcasting by adopting the experienced utility approach and taking advantage of viewers’ subjective well-being. With the help of microdata provided from surveys conducted by a Japanese public broadcaster, the crucial findings of our analysis are that viewing public broadcasting has a considerable monetary value, as well as an endogenous property. We also found a detrimental association between public broadcast viewing and life satisfaction (a subjective well-being indicator), which diminishes among adolescents and early middle-aged people. This implies that a diversified and complex viewing method is emerging that is a particular characteristic of these age groups, and which may mitigate the negative effect of conventional methods of viewing.     

Vertical differentiation via multi-tier geographical indications and the consumer perception of quality: The case of Chianti wines

We derive and estimate a model of demand for Geographical Indications allowing for subjective and heterogeneous quality perceptions, and study vertical differentiation based on multi-tier quality labels within the context of the strategy adopted by the Chianti Consortium. Quality perceptions and wine choices are elicited in an online experiment where the number of quality tiers is augmented incrementally in a between-subject design. The empirical model includes subjective quality perceptions as an (endogenous) explanatory variable, and unexplained heterogeneity in WTP for quality as a random parameter. We find that quality perceptions are endogenous to the labeling regime, and adding a high-quality label (Chianti Classico Gran Selezione) decreases the perceived quality of all other Chianti wines, but not the competitor wines. However, the market shared lost to perception restructuring is small compared to the benefits of increased vertical differentiation.     

Emotions and new venture judgment in China

A new venture is likely to be perceived as either an opportunity or a risk. People also vary in their subjective judgment of the probability of a new venture’s success. From an affective approach, this study investigates how people’s feelings about the outcomes of a venture affect their subjective judgment on the value and probability of founding a new business. It was found that an entrepreneur’s hope of creating a successful new venture significantly increases the attractiveness and perceived success likelihood of the new venture. Those who show less fear of failure and lower surprise for the success tend to view a new venture as an opportunity. Those who show less anger, regret, and higher contempt of failure and lower surprise of success as well as lower trait sadness judge a higher subjective probability for the success of founding a new firm. These findings reveal entrepreneurs’ initiatives in economic activities. Positive and negative implications are discussed, particularly for entrepreneurial activities in China.     

Happier with the Same: Job Satisfaction of Disadvantaged Workers

Job satisfaction evaluations depend not only on the objective circumstances that workers experience in their jobs, but also on their subjective dispositions, such as their aspirations, expectations, feelings of entitlement or personal evaluation criteria. We use matched employer–employee data from the United Kingdom to examine whether and how subjective dispositions influencing job satisfaction vary across workers with different socio‐demographic traits. We approximate jobs using detailed occupations within workplaces and find that most of the variability in job satisfaction is at the worker rather than the proximate‐job level, and that workers with disadvantaged statuses report higher satisfaction with the same jobs than those with advantaged statuses.     

Measurement of bias in project durations

A note by Milliken (1973) suggests the usage of programme trend charts will help managers estimate the total duration of the project slippage. Whilst his sample graphs are informative they are of little use in evaluating two aspects of the problem: (a) The uncertainty inherent in the project–known to the Shop Floor, but unknown to the management. (b) The expected completion date–until sufficient data has been collected to yield reliable regression extrapolations. It is postulated that the assessment of suitably encoded subjective probability distributions be used to satisfy points (a) and (b) above. These distributions, when evaluated by a scoring rule, will also give the management, and the assessor, a true statement of the quality of the assessments. Furthermore, the underlying theory of subjective probability scoring rules suggests that assessors should become ‘better’ when being scored than when given no incentive, other than the usual behavioural guidance of most hierarchic organizations.     

煤矿安全事故频发的原因及对策

煤炭是基础性能源,它的健康发展对国民经济快速稳定发展起着不可估量的作用.本文针对我国煤矿安全生产形势,分别从客观和主观两方面详细地剖析了煤矿安全事故频发的原因,并提出了对策,研究结果对煤矿安全生产具有一定的指导意义.     

How many bad apples are in a bunch? An experimental investigation of perceived pesticide residue risks

Subjective risks of having contaminated apples elicited via the Exchangeability Method (EM) are examined in this study. In particular, as the experimental design allows us to investigate the validity of elicited risk measures, we examine the magnitude of differences between valid and invalid observations. In addition, using an econometric model, we also explore the effect of consumers’ socioeconomic status and attitudes toward food safety on subjects’ perceptions of pesticide residues in apples. Results suggest first, that consumers do not expect an increase in the number of apples containing only one pesticide residue, but, rather, in the number of those apples with traces of multiple residues. Second, we find that valid subjective risk measures do not significantly diverge from invalid ones, indicative of little effect of internal validity on the actual magnitude of subjective risks. Finally, we show that subjective risks depend on age, education, a subject’s ties to the apple industry, and consumer association membership.