Qualitative multiple criteria choice analysis

In recent years an avalanche of literature has been published in the field of multiple criteria analysis. This methodology for decision-making and evaluation serves to find the best compromise solutions among alternative choice options, taking into account the existence of conflicting judgment criteria.The present paper focuses attention on one particular class of multiple criteria methods, viz. those in which the available information (impacts and policy priorities) is measured in an ordinal sense. This low level of measurement precludes the application of standard numerical methods. For this problem a new method, the so-called regime analysis, is devised in the paper.     

Yield measure for the process with multiple streams

Process capability indices, such as C _pk , have been widely used in the manufacturing industry to provide common quantitative measures for process performance. The index C _pk only provides an approximate rather than an exact measure of the process yield. To obtain an exact measure of the process yield, Boyles proposed a yield index S _pk . Capability measures for processes with single stream have been investigated extensively; however, multiple streams processes often occur in practice. Bothe presented a capability index for multiple streams process. In the present paper, a new index that is able to provide an exact measure of yield for a multiple streams process is developed. Three examples are given for illustration. From the results of the yield measure in the three examples, the conventional approach, using the arithmetic average of the estimated yield indices of all streams, will certainly over-estimate the process yield.     

An empirical analysis of the social security disability application,appeal, and award process

We provide an empirical analysis of the Social Security disability application, award, and appeal process using the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS). We show that the appeal option increases the award probability from 46% to 73%. However, this comes at the cost of significant delays: the duration between application and award is over three times longer for those who are awarded benefits after one or more stages of appeal. Our results reveal the importance of self-selection in application and appeal decisions. In particular, an individual's self-assessed disability status emerges as one of the most powerful predictors of application, appeal, and award decisions.     

Improving social harm indices with a modulated Hawkes process

Communities are affected adversely by a range of social harm events, such as crime, traffic crashes, medical emergencies, and drug use. The police, fire, health and social service departments are tasked with mitigating such social harm through various types of interventions. While various different social harm indices have been proposed for allocating resources to spatially fixed hotspots, the risk of social harm events is dynamic, and new algorithms and software systems that are capable of quickly identifying risks and triggering appropriate public safety responses are needed. We propose a novel modulated Hawkes process for this purpose that offers flexible approaches to both (i) the incorporation of spatial covariates and leading indicators for variance reduction in the case of rarer event categories, and (ii) the capture of dynamic hotspot formation through self-excitation. We present an efficient l1-penalized EM algorithm for estimating the model that performs feature selection for the spatial covariates of each incident type simultaneously. We provide simulation results using data from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department in order to illustrate the advantages of the modulated Hawkes process model of social harm over various recently introduced social harm indices and property crime Hawkes processes.     

Using DEA to evaluate the state of society as measured by multiple social indicators

This paper presents an approach for discussing the state of society, which is measured by multiple social indicators, using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Replacing inputs and outputs in DEA with negative and positive social indicators respectively, we analyze the desirability of living in the 47 prefectures of Japan. This is also a proposal for the potential use of DEA in multi-dimensional evaluation analysis other than the standard DEA efficiency analysis. The results using eight social indicators identify 26 DEA desirable prefectures out of the 47 and present other useful knowledge and information. It is concluded that DEA, which can avoid uniform evaluation by an a priori weighting system, provides availability as a comprehensive evaluation tool different from traditional ones.     

HRM implementation by multiple HRM actors: a social exchange perspective

Abstract

In this study, we understand HRM implementation as a social process that depends on the social exchange relationships between line managers and both HRM professionals and employees. As such, we offer a fresh approach to understanding HRM implementation by concentrating on the social exchange among HRM actors. We do so by investigating to what extent these exchange relationships influence HRM implementation, as reflected in employees’ perceptions of the presence of HRM practices and their affective commitment. We collected multilevel data from two sources (line managers and employees) and in two phases in a Dutch engineering firm, and obtained fully matched manager – employee information from 75 employees and 20 line managers. Our results show that employees perceive a larger number of HRM practices when they have a good relationship with their line managers and when their line managers are motivated to implement HRM practices. Line managers, in turn, reciprocate perceived support from the HRM department with greater motivation to implement these practices. We conclude that because HRM actors engage in social interactions, HRM practices will be implemented at the organizational level because employees perceive the presence of HRM practices and then reciprocate this with affective commitment.     

Measuring trustworthiness of information diffusion by risk discovery process in social networking services

Most of current social network services are vulnerable to malicious actions. For example, rumor (e.g., contaminated and distorted information) can be diffused along the social links. In this paper, given a social network service, we design a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, and propose a robust information diffusion model to efficiently detect the malicious peers from which a risk (i.e., rumor) has been generated on the P2P network. Thereby, by aggregating social interactions among users, a set of interaction sequences are obtained. Given a set of interaction sequences, statistical sequence mining method is exploited to discover a certain social position which provides peculiar patterns on the P2P networks. For evaluating the proposed method, we conducted two experimentations with NetLogo simulation platform for risk discovery on social network.     

社会空间特性对社会交往的影响——以长沙市为例

社会空间对社会交往的影响源于空间的特性。实证资料表明,社会空间与社会交往形式呈显著相关关系。实证研究表明:社会空间层次越高,无论是正式交往还是非正式交往,交往的频率越高;在非正式交往方面,社会空间层次越低,交往频率亦越高。在此基础上,认为社会空间与社会交往的关系在如下两点上值得进一步探讨:第一,社会空间对社会交往的影响源自文化内涵,但更源自经济内涵;第二,在社会空间分异的社会背景下,要获得丰富的社会资本,就必须加强社会交往。     

Measuring social entrepreneurship and social value with leakage. Definition,analysis and policies for the hospitality industry

The aim is to analyze, define and examine the connections between social entrepreneurship and the generation of social value, considering the concept of leakage as a measure of social value creation and distribution for the hospitality industry. The paper also proposes an exploratory-theoretical framework of policies to promote social entrepreneurship in hospitality, reduce leakage, and increase the generation of social value. Firstly, the paper concentrates on the figure of the social entrepreneur as a promoter of social value creation. Secondly, it analyzes social value creation in hospitality and its measurement. Then, the article studies and presents leakage as an instrument to monitor social value created by social entrepreneurship in hospitality. Finally, the paper proposes a wide framework of policies to enhance social value creation in hospitality, through the reduction of leakage and reinforcement of social entrepreneurship. Leakage is a useful indicator to monitor social value creation in the hospitality industry. The reduction of leakage can gauge the success of policies promoting social entrepreneurship activities which improve social value creation for the host society. The paper proposes proper and idiosyncratic measures of social value creation in hospitality. It also provides a mechanism to measure the effectiveness of the actions designed to generate social entrepreneurship and social value, at a destination and also at firm or hotel level. A complete framework of actions and policies addressed to increase social entrepreneurship and social value is also proposed.     

An analysis of the multiple listing service

This paper looks at the operation of the Multiple Listing Service and suggests that it is not correct to suggest that no restrictions should be placed on the membership in a multiple listing service. Some exclusionary practices with regard to membership are justified to foster the continued viability of a multiple listing service. Moreover, actions to control any type of opportunistic behavior exist and also are justified. Another issue addressed is the determination of the split in the commission rate between listing brokers and selling brokers of a piece of property listed with the Multiple Listing Service. The split is based on both cost and demand considerations.     

Introducing dimensional analysis to the social sciences

This study serves to introduce dimensional analysis to the social sciences. Dimensional analysis, a method fundamental to research in the physical sciences, is presented first in a conceptual framework. Questions such as: what makes the method work, what use is it, and what are its limitations … are dealt with summarily. The method is then applied to the modeling of interurban migration. The selection of independent variables, the synthesis of dimensionless groups, and the analysis of data are considered in some detail.While a blanket endorsement of the method must be withheld pending further research, results of the present study are encouraging. Dimensional analysis may eventually find wide application in the social sciences.     

Qualitative data envelopment analysis by affinity set: a survey of subjective opinions for NPOs

Measuring the performance of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) is a complicated issue: data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a popular quantitative tool in the past literature. However, the subjective opinions of NPOs could disturb their actual performance, and this problem is seldom considered. In this study, we use the qualitative DEA as a tool to find the emphasized inputs and outputs for these NPOs. Most DEA models are established by the basis of quantitative data, they are difficult to describe the qualitative performance of NPOs. This paper proposes a new perspective for computing the efficiency of a Decision Making Unit based on qualitative data by affinity Set. The DEA model for qualitative data could be traced back to the work of Cook et al. early in 1993. Our contribution prevents the identical efficiency scores from the model of Cook et al., and a combinatorial optimization technique is used to solve the new problem. Finally, we found most NPOs would like to get more resources from outside; but interestingly, they don’t like to be officially monitored. Therefore, we should use the quantitative DEA on NPOs very carefully.     

Women nascent entrepreneurs and social capital in the process of firm creation

The main objective of this research is to study gender differences in the process of firm creation, especially in the gestation stage of that process when nascent entrepreneurs carry out the promoter behaviours. A second objective is to analyse if the cognitive and structural endowments of social capital exert an influence on the promoter behaviours and on the kind of firms created by entrepreneurs of both genders. To reach the objectives, firstly, a theoretical framework will be developed and secondly, an empirical analysis starting from a sample of nascent entrepreneurs in the Seville province (southern Spain) will be carried out. Due to women entrepreneurs being considered nowadays essential for growth and development everywhere, results obtained could help to improve the efficiency of policies that lead to the promotion and consolidation of the female participation rate in entrepreneurial activity.      

Improving the process of process modelling by the use of domain process patterns

The use of business process models has become prevalent in a wide area of enterprise applications. But while their popularity is expanding, concerns are growing with respect to their proper creation and maintenance. An obvious way to boost the efficiency of creating high-quality business process models would be to reuse relevant parts of existing models. At this point, however, limited support exists to guide process modellers towards the usage of appropriate model content. In this paper, a set of content-oriented patterns is presented, which is extracted from a large set of process models from the order management and manufacturing production domains. The patterns are derived using a newly proposed set of algorithms, which are being discussed in this paper. The authors demonstrate how such Domain Process Patterns, in combination with information on their historic usage, can support process modellers in generating new models. To support the wider dissemination and development of Domain Process Patterns within and beyond the studied domains, an accompanying website has been set up.     

论失地农民城市化进程中的社会保障体系构建

城市化是中国走向现代化的必然趋势,在城市扩张的过程中征占农村土地的力度越来越大,失地农民越来越多,失地农民市民化已成为推进城市化的瓶颈。因此,文章提出建立新型社会保障体系是解决失地农民进入城市门槛的对策构想。     

Computer assisted text analysis in the social sciences

We use the term “Computer Assisted Text Analysis” in a broad sense to refer to a range of current techniques from quantitative social science and content analysis to ‘data mining’ and ‘text classification’, including the analysis of open-ended survey questions, transcribed interviews and speeches, wherever, in fact, the researcher is confronted with data in the form of natural language texts of social scientific interest. These methods are often used in exploratory data analysis, but can also be applied systematically with moderate statistical rigour in the development and testing of hypotheses at various theoretical levels, ranging from the statistics of word usage to changes within or between discourses over time. The general approach is in the tradition of content analysis, by which words which occur together in relatively close proximity in the same context are interpreted as relating to a common theme or concept in the discourse studied. We review a comprehensive set of tools to identify and visualize structures of co-occurrence of words and concepts both within, and in comparing, a number of texts. These produce results not essentially different from those reached by representing word co-occurrences in terms of network analysis or neural network programming using schematic linguistic templates of various kinds. A comparison of the relational data analysis vs. a dictionary-based MDS approach shows that these provide very close if not identical results, despite the fact that the underlying assumptions are frequently represented as different theoretical approaches.     

Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA): an application for the industry

This article examines the management in Colombian industrial sectors using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This method conceptualizes cases as combinations of attributes and use Boolean algebra to derive simplified expressions of combinations that lead to a specific outcome. In this analysis, we show the value of this method for studying the management in the industrial from different approaches.     

Gendered giving: the influence of social norms on the donation behavior of men and women

• We study if men and women are subject to different influences when determining their level of charitable giving. In particular, we examine differential sensitivities to social norms among donors to a public radio station. Our survey of 975 donors finds that male donors are more likely than female donors to use social norms to inform their own behavior. We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate the influence of social information on social norm formation and giving. Our results suggest that temporarily created social norms influence giving by men significantly more than by women. This result replicates and establishes the causal relationship between social norms and donations suggested by our field findings. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of these results.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“十二五”时期北京市区县政府社会保障公共服务标准探讨

政府社会保障公共服务标准的制定和实施,有利于实现政府社会保障服务的规范化、透明化,开展政府社会保障服务的评估和比较,并促进社会保障服务的均等化。根据科学性、可比性、系统性、简洁性和可操作性等原则,本文选取了社会救助、社会保险、社会福利等方面的指标,构建了地方政府社会保障公共服务指标体系,并根据国际比较、国内比较和可及性等原则,对"十二五"时期北京市区县社会保障公共服务标准进行了初步探讨。     

Efficiency analysis of social protection expenditure in the Italian Regions

The attention and demand for greater social protection is increasing among the populations of all European countries. It is difficult to identify which of the structures and infrastructures, sectors and regional budgets are inefficient and/or negligent in respect of providing more social protection. In the political sphere the problem is examined from a qualitative point of view, because it is essential to have a valid decisional support system that provides useful information for structural and economic intervention programs devised to improve social protection. Regional spending on social protection is a fundamental component of individual well-being. This work is precisely aimed at assessing individual well-being in terms of technical expenses efficiency in the Italian Regions. Stochastic frontier analysis and a nonparametric deterministic model structure are the tools used to investigate the social protection determinants in the paper.