Comments’ Extraction by User ID,Keywords, and Anchor Texts from the Thread of a Bulletin Board System

Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) on the Web are used by many users posting comments on threads. Each thread carries a subject of discussion. Most users post comments related to a subject. However, unrelated comments are also posted. The unrelated comments distract users and diminish their understanding of the entire story of a thread. Comments unrelated to a subject have to be filtered automatically. This paper proposes a method that extracts comments related to a thread subject from a thread of BBS. The method extracts two types of comments: comments related to a thread subject (main comments), and comments related to main comments (sub-comments). The main comments are extracted by a user ID and keywords in the comments. The sub-comments are extracted by explicit and implicit anchor texts in the comments. We experimented with the proposed method and verified that comments extracted by the proposed method support participants in understanding the entire story of a thread.     

The Effect of Information Communication Technology and Corporate Organizational Reforms on Productivity in Japan: Firm- level Evidence

Our main objective in this paper is to understand how Japanese firms can increase productivity by utilizing Information and Communication Technology (ICT). E-commerce, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), and SCM (Supply Chain Management) are popular in Japan, so a new type of ICT might offer an opportunity for Japanese firms to change current business relations or to start up new ones. The novelty of this paper is in its empirical study of the combination of ICT promotion and a variety of business organizational changes needed to discover which type of business organizational change is suitable for raising productivity in Japan. For workplace organization within firms, we discuss the decentralization or centralization of decision-making power and the flattening of the corporate hierarchy. For business relational changes, we discuss the outsourcing of the business process and the start up of new business relations. Our main result is that in general, the promotion of ICT has better effects in reforms related to changes in business relations among business partners, rather than to reforms within a firm. Starting up new business relations that require planning and R&D show the best chances of raising productivity using ICT promotion.     

Corporate bankruptcy prediction in Japan

The purpose of this study is to highlight the financial characteristics of failed firms in Japan, and to construct corporate bankruptcy prediction models with greater prediction accuracy. Our principal component analysis indicated that failed firms in Japan could be classified into two groups: a group having negative financial structures and a group having a declining flow of funds. Additionally, they can be classified into two other different categories of groups: one whose financial position during three years before shows a ‘V’ shape and another group that shows a ‘XXX’ shape.Our discriminant analysis indicated that improved prediction accuracy could be obtained by using, as predictor variables, both ratios and absolute amounts based on cash base financial statement data three years before failure. This data was adjusted to properly reflect the exceptions, reservations, and qualifications appearing in the audit reports and those based on accrual base financial statement data.     

Social Network Rebuilder: A Tool to Estimate a Social Network of Financial Crisis Propagation

The objective of this paper is to find a new method to estimate real social networks based on observed data collected by questionnaire surveys. Studies on social networks have been increasing in order to analyze social phenomena from a micro viewpoint. Most social phenomena can be explained by micro-level interactions among people. Spread of rumor and pandemics are typical example of micro interaction? However, there has not been much work on an analysis of real social networks based on observed data. This study tries to establish a methodology that exploits a genetic algorithm to rebuild a social network based on the data observed indirectly from real social networks. This paper introduces our proposed method, which allows us to rebuild a social network to some extent from degree distributions of a target real social network.     

Welfare Effects of Endogenous Information Acquisition and Disclosure in Duopoly Markets

Abstract

This paper investigates the interaction between firms' information acquisition decisions and disclosure of internally acquired information in a Cournot duopoly market under demand uncertainty. The main results are as follows. When the correlation between firms' demands is positive and sufficiently high, disclosure of information on demand uncertainty can enhance social welfare, given that the quality of firms' private information is constant. However, in the setting where firms' private information is endogenously determined, mandatory disclosure is not always desirable. This is because, when disclosure is mandated, firms acquire less precise information compared with the case where the acquired information is not disclosed; hence, their internal information environments are deteriorated. This can lead to unintended consequences such that disclosure regulation decreases social welfare.     

Subcontracting Structure and Productivity in the Japanese Software Industry

This paper presents an empirical analysis of the factors determining the productivity of the software industry in Japan, using individual data from the Survey of the State of the Information Service Industry conducted in August 2006 by IPA (Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan). This paper focuses on the relationship between the subcontracting structure and productivity in the Japanese software industry. Software enterprises are classified as prime contractors, intermediate subcontractors, end-contractors, and independent enterprise. A comparison of their productivity levels reveals that intermediate subcontractors are the least productive. However, it is observed that the intermediate subcontractors possessing a high quality of human resources measured the proportion of employees passing the Information Technology Engineers Examination (ITEE), or the intermediate subcontractors adopting the IT skill standard which defines the skills for IT human resources clearly and systematically, has a high productivity level. It can raise the productivity in software industry as a whole.     

The rise and fall of deficit in Japan, 1965–1990

This paper investigates the fifteen-year period when the Japanese government deficit (defined as the deficit bond issues to the general budget) rose sharply and shrank to zero. Our main contribution is to differentiate the budget “plan” and the “actual” (ex post) budget in order to distinguish intention and surprise. From 1976 to 1979, deficit bonds were considered to be deliberately increased, because of little surprise (deviations of actual from planned budget) in deficits for these years. The deficit ratio was brought down in the 1980s, mainly by freezing expenditures at the nominal level and waiting for bracket creeps in taxes to catch up. Beyond a trend increase in the 1970s and a trend decrease in the 1980s, the Japanese government acted to pursue a fiscal expenditure fine-tuning.     

Recycling and International Trade Theory

Recently recycling and the production of secondary materials have increased in many countries. However, there is little analysis examining the effects of recycling on comparative advantage, trade, and welfare. In a model with recycling sectors, the author examines whether the Rybczynski theorem is valid, how the price effects are modified, how a recycling subsidy changes the production structure and comparative advantage. It is found that demand has an effect on final goods production and comparative advantage since consumption goods are transformed into recycling inputs.     

The structure of students’ knowledge and self-concepts. Part B. The structure of students’ self-concepts in industrial high school

The purpose of this study is to analyze the structure of industrial high school students’ self-concepts. The survey was conducted on 1,040 industrial high school students in Japan. A factor analysis was carried out, and five factors were identified: F1, attitude toward self-discipline; F2, attitude toward career development; F3, attitude toward professional skill development; F4, attitude toward social values; F5, attitude toward self-monitoring. It is suggested that the structure of students’ self-concepts in industrial high school includes these five components. The results of an ANOVA test showed that, there were significant differences among students of the three different grades for F1, F2, and F3. The mean scores for F1 and F2 became higher for older students, while the mean scores for F3 went down for older students. The results also showed a problem in that as the school year increases, the consciousness of professional development is reduced.