Simulated Attention-Tracking Methodologies: An Examination of Measurement Efficacy

This study introduces and examines a simulated attention-tracking methodology as an emerging technique to improve the study of in-store shopper behavior and decision making. To assess the viability of this new methodology, we examine its efficacy in producing consumer behavior data consistent with results predicted by the marketing literature. Empirical data across five grocery categories are used to examine the influence of personal, product, and situational differences on external information search. Findings show that the attention-tracking methodology is able to demonstrate expected results in almost all cases. The methodology is also able to provide a more complete view of external information search through tracing the observed search behavior preceding decision making. This proof of methodology responds directly to calls in the marketing and retailing literature to test new and emerging methodologies in support of research on in-store marketing and shopper behavior. Findings also provide managers with a methodology to examine the actual impact of marketing actions intended to capture shoppers’ attention at the retail shelf and to influence behavior.     

Full‐life‐cycle economics: An evaluation methodology for information technology projects

This article presents a methodology for the examination and evaluation of proposed information technology projects. Through an examination of successes and failures in estimating project costs and benefits, a number of weaknesses have been identified. The areas of “hidden”; costs and intangible (or at least difficult to quantify) benefits have been particularly difficult to estimate. The methodology presented here seeks to retain the strengths of older methodologies, while addressing these identified weaknesses. This methodology, while not a substitute for good judgment, provides a framework for the standardization of economic analysis. As such, it provides both management and clients with a better basis for decisions regarding investments in information technology.     

Supporting the Collaborative Construction of a Shared Understanding About Work with a Guided Conceptual Modeling Technique

The existence of a shared understanding about a collaborative work process among all involved actors is one prerequisite for its successful implementation. The development of a shared understanding is facilitated when the actors make explicit their individual views and create externalizations that can be used as subjects of discourse. Instruments supporting externalization and discourse about collaborative work need to provide adequate forms of representation and guide actors in implementing these reflection and alignment processes. Appropriate guidance can facilitate the construction of a shared understanding for actors not accustomed to such processes. This paper introduces a methodology that offers structural and procedural guidance by adopting diagrammatical conceptual modeling techniques. This methodology has been evaluated extensively in a multiple case study. A combination of interaction analysis of the modeling process and ex-post assessment of the actors’ perceptions has been used to evaluate the adequacy of the proposed methodology with respect to the pursued objectives. The results confirm that the modeling methodology and the proposed guidance measures appropriately support the process of constructing a shared understanding about collaborative work processes.     

浅析米塞斯对经济科学的重建：基于韦伯的方法论视角

马克思·韦伯与米塞斯都是德语世界中对社会科学有卓越贡献的学者,他们不仅仅私交甚好,而且在思想上尤其是方法论上也有许多相互倾慕之处。但是,至今也很少有学者从韦伯的方法论这一视角来审视米塞斯的经济学方法论思想及其他所倡导的人类行为科学的重建。本文试图探讨韦伯的方法论思想与米塞斯独特的经济学方法论及其后来极力倡导人类行为学的先验观点之间的关系。一方面介绍韦伯所提出的客观性、理想类型和“理解”的方法对米塞斯重建经济科学之思想的影响,另一方面也阐明米塞斯对韦伯方法论的一些不同意见．并基于批判性的吸取韦伯的这些方法论观点的同时。继承和发展门格尔理论与历史的二分法,从而试图重建纯理论性的经济科学——“人类行为学”。     

Applying latent trait analysis in the evaluation of prospects for cross-selling of financial services

Identification of the order in which households acquire financial services has important implications for market segmentation and cross-selling strategies. This study illustrates a procedure by which financial institutions, based on internal records, can estimate the likelihood that a customer will purchase/use additional services. The methodology discussed in this study positions financial services and investors along the same continuum according to the particular ownership pattern. The location of an investor indicates his financial expertise and resources, while the location of a financial service measures the level of expertise/resources needed for ownership of that service.A key feature of the methodology is its ability to predict the probability of ownership of some financial services given information on (non-)ownership of other services. This study concludes with an illustration applying the methodology for targeting customers for cross-selling efforts.     

Raising and Rising Voices in Social Media

Emerging cyber-collective social movements (CSMs) have frequently made headlines in the news. Despite their popularity, there is a lack of systematic methodologies to empirically study such movements in complex online environments. Using the Al-Huwaider online campaign as a case to illustrate our methodology, this contribution attempts to establish a rigorous and fundamental analysis that explains CSMs. We collected 150 blogs from 17 countries ranging between April 2003 and July 2010 with a special focus on Al-Huwaider’s campaigns capturing multi-cultural aspects for our analysis. Bearing the analysis upon three central tenets of individual, community, and transnational perspectives, we develop novel algorithms modeling CSMs by utilizing existing collective action theories and computational social network analysis. This article contributes a methodology to study the diffusion of issues in social networks and examines roles of influential community members. The proposed methodology provides a rigorous tool to understand the complexity and dynamics of CSMs. Such methodology also assists us in observing the transcending nature of CSMs with future possibilities for modeling transnational outreach. Our study addresses the lack of fundamental research on the formation of CSMs. This research contributes novel methodologies that can be applied to many settings including business, marketing and many others, beyond the exemplary setting chosen here for illustrative purposes.     

基于软系统方法的电子政务决策支持模式研究

本文首先分析了目前电子政务规划中存在的缺点与不足,接着介绍了软系统方法的思想。然后运用SWOT 方法,提出了电子政务规划的目标,并借鉴软系统方法的思想提出了电子政务规划决策支持模式框架及其实现步骤。最后对电子政务的未来发展模式提出了展望。     

马克思经济学和古典经济学研究方法上的演化关系探析

古典经济学和马克思经济学是前后相继的两个经济学体系。两者在方法论上既有区别,又有联系。文章就两门学科的研究方法作了简明概括的比较,论证了马克思经济学在研究方法上对古典经济学的继承、发展和创新。     

General intelligence and emotional intelligence in senior management in the distribution sector: An applied analysis with synthetic indicators

This study investigates the importance of General Intelligence (GI) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) to leadership skills among a sample of managers. It presents a methodology based on constructing two synthetic indicators that aggregate and measure the different components of EI and GI. The relationship between the two indicators and a one-dimensional indicator that measures leadership capacity is then studied. This methodology is applied to data taken from questionnaires sent to hierarchical superiors in a leading international company in the distribution sector. The results of the study conducted on a sample of managers show that the intensity and direction of the effect of GI and EI on leadership capacity are similar, positive and significant in both cases.     

Another trip to the mall: a segmentation study of customers based on their activities

In this exploratory study, a segmentation analysis of a shopping mall's customers is conducted according to the activities they performed during their visit, based on a methodology developed by Bloch et al. (J. Retailing 70 (1994) 23). This methodology is extended with measures of perceptions, emotions, and motivations. Activity-based clusters, obtained with the Variable Neighborhood Search metaheuristic applied to the P-median problem. (Hansen and Mladenovi , 1997) proved to be significantly different along many psychographic dimensions (including atmospheric perceptions), and demographic variables. This profiling methodology successfully synthesizes many segmentation approaches that were used separately in previous studies. This results in a complete and distinct profile of each group that may be a useful tool for retail strategists.     

An Approach to Support Negotiation Processes with Imprecise Information Multicriteria Additive Models

This paper discusses the possible uses of the VIP (Variable Interdependent Parameters) Analysis software and methodology in negotiation support. VIP Analysis is a decision support tool that incorporates complementary approaches to deal with the aggregation of multi-criteria performances under imprecise information. Its purpose is to support the evaluation of a discrete set of alternatives according to multi-attribute additive value functions. We propose extensions of the methodology of VIP Analysis to address explicitly the differences among the actors in terms of the weights space.     

The Evaluation of Innovation Capabilities in Small Software Firms: A Methodological Approach

This paper presents a methodological approach for the evaluation of innovation capabilities in small software firms. The methodology is based on the assumption of a relationship between specific resources managed by small software firms and their innovation capabilities. Within the proposed methodological approach, a model for the quantitative analysis of innovation capabilities is presented. In order to show how the methodology can be applied to concrete situations, three case studies of small firms operating in the software sector and information services are presented and discussed.     

A Cognitive Mapping Approach to Organizing the Participation of Multiple Actors in a Problem Structuring Process

Problem structuring methods lead to a better understanding of problems by proposing that individuals engage in a structured process of investigation of such elements as causal relationships, connected problems, and possible solutions. This paper first examines possible ways of organizing the participation of multiple decision-makers in the varying contexts of the problem structuring process. The paper presents an original methodology based on investigating the participants’ contributions with respect to the problem explored. This methodology uses cognitive mapping techniques and offers two kinds of support, the first justifying a specific division of the participant set into thematic subgroups and the second providing a basis for further exploration using different problem structuring methods.     

Optimizing and Evaluating Retail Assortments for Infrequently Purchased Products

This article develops a methodology for choosing optimal retail assortments for infrequently purchased products and assessing the robustness of such assortments with regard to shifts in customer preferences. The approach incorporates heterogeneous consumer preferences and uses integer programming to determine optimal retail assortments. The robustness of the resulting assortments is examined using alternative consumer choice assumptions and ranges of parameter values. The methodology is illustrated using adaptive conjoint data collected via the Internet and is assessed against the sales results from an assortment offered by a national retail chain.     

Simultaneous multidimensional unfolding and cluster analysis: An investigation of strategic groups

This paper develops a maximum likelihood based methodology for simultaneously performing multidimensional unfolding and cluster analysis on two-way dominance or profile data. This new procedure utilizes mixtures of multivariate conditional normal distributions to estimate a joint space of stimulus coordinates and K ideal points, one for each cluster or group, in a T-dimensional space. The conditional mixture, maximum likelihood methodology is introduced together with an E-M algorithm utilized for parameter estimation. A marketing strategy application is provided with an analysis of PIMS data for a set of firms drawn from the same competitive industry to determine strategic groups, while simultaneously depicting strategy-performance relationships.INSEAD     

Statistical conclusion validity in experimental designs used in business research

This article is intended as a tutorial on the use of experimental design methodology in business research. In particular, the issue of statistical conclusion validity is considered. Several recently published reports that have used experimental methodology are discussed in detail. Each report illustrates serious errors in the match between the statistical analysis and the research design. A more reasonable design and analysis are suggested for each case. The paper concludes by offering some guidelines for the evaluation of experimental results and for the training of future researchers.     

Fuzzy Set Based Consensus Schemes for Multicriteria Group Decision making Applied to Strategic Planning

This paper studies three consensus schemes based on fuzzy models for dealing with the input of multiple experts in multicriteria decision making. The consensus schemes are based on different aggregation procedures for constructing a collective decision. In the paper, we propose a methodology that makes use of the three consensus schemes implemented by a coordination mode that creates an efficient manner of exploiting the capabilities of each member of the group in a cooperative work. The applicability and efficiency of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through an application related to strategic planning.     

SUPPLIER EVALUATION IN A DYADIC RELATIONSHIP: AN ACTION RESEARCH APPROACH

This article describes an Action Research (AR) framework applied to the supplier evaluation environment of a telecommunication company. Within this AR framework, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used because the methodology can successfully delineate evaluation problems and then outline a desirable path. This leads management to continuously review and improve complex systems or processes. The DEA methodology coordinates the supplier evaluation inputs and reconciles what can be very diverse performance measures and even more diverse weights applied by evaluation team members. Finally, dyadic interdependence can be demonstrated by identifying the impact of changes in buyer performance attributes on each supplier's capacity to accommodate and adjust.     

Enhancing Governmentally Sponsored Export Promotions Through Better Segmentation of the Market of a State's Manufacturing Concerns

This article presents methodology for identifying product categories that, if they were made the subjects of a specified state's export promotions, would hold promise for satisfying relevant needs of members of three key “stakeholder” groups regarding the outcomes of the governmentally sponsored export promotions: the World Trade Organization (WTO), managements of non-exporting, small- and- medium-sized (SME) manufacturing concerns, and governmental entities who are responsible for raising funds to support such promotions. Methodology is applied in the context of a state in the United States (North Carolina).

The methodology is then applied in the context of a state in the United States (North Carolina). The presentations of the results of the application of the methodology at each of the 2-, 4- and 6-digit HS-coded product category levels are in each case followed by discussions of implications of the results.