Alternative procedures for converting qualitative response data to quantitative expectations: An application to Australian manufacturing

This paper analyses and extends alternative procedures for converting qualitative expectations responses to quantitative expectations. A number of conversion procedures is investigated, including the probability model, the time-varying parameter probability model, and the regression approach. The informational content of the survey expectations is compared with simple time series models. It is found that the expectations models are superior for many series, both in terms of producing lower forecast root mean square error (RMSE) values and in detecting turning points in the actual data. Survey expectations are also tested for rational expectations in aggregate using the orthogonality test.     

Delivery of private toll roads: Incentive strategies for improving service quality and social welfare

Managing the service quality of toll roads delivered by using Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to ensure value for money to taxpayers is challenging for governments worldwide. An absence of critical research in this area has exacerbated this challenge. The upshot, in this instance, has been an inability for governments to engender and enact effective incentive strategies to operate and maintain private toll roads. To fill this gap, this paper aims to identify and examine incentive strategies for improving the operational quality of toll roads delivered by private entities. We develop a game model with four scenarios and then compare relevant decision behaviour and social welfare. The analysis reveals that only when the shadow cost of public funds is below a specific threshold there can be a feasible incentive strategy for ensuring quality improvement and higher social welfare. Furthermore, an incentive contract with a predetermined quality can enable a higher operational quality while requiring a higher incentive intensity. The contributions of this research are twofold: (1) we propose an enhanced model that is useful for governments to examine the impacts that different incentive strategies will have on the performance of transport projects; (2) we give an enhanced insight to support decision-making for incentives towards transport asset operations. This research will also be beneficial for governments in enhancing toll roads’ operational quality and social welfare for taxpayers.     

Bayesian data augmentation methods for the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research findings

The possible utility of Bayesian methods for the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research has been repeatedly suggested but insufficiently investigated. In this project, we developed and used a Bayesian method for synthesis, with the goal of identifying factors that influence adherence to HIV medication regimens. We investigated the effect of 10 factors on adherence. Recognizing that not all factors were examined in all studies, we considered standard methods for dealing with missing data and chose a Bayesian data augmentation method. We were able to summarize, rank, and compare the effects of each of the 10 factors on medication adherence. This is a promising methodological development in the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research.     

A common base for quality control criteria in quantitative and qualitative research

In the social sciences, several scientific paradigms are mutually isolated owing to their use of specific sets of methodological criteria and quality control procedures. In this article, the central hypothesis, to be tested by conceptual analysis and logical reasoning, is that recommended procedures for quality control in quantitative as well as qualitative research can be derived from a common base of regulative ideas. By ‘qualitative’, we mean the complex of ethnographic, anthropological, symbolic interactionist, ethnoscience and related approaches. A second goal is to demonstrate the use of regulative ideas as a parsimonious and fruitful base for a comparative analysis of methodological canons. Although our focus is on the comparison of quantitative and qualitative (or: naturalistic) research, we also pay attention to policy research as opposed to fundamental research.     

Integrating quality into quantity: survey research in the era of mixed methods

As widely recognized during the golden age of survey research thanks to the work of the Columbia school, the use of mixed strategies allows survey research to overcome its limitations by incorporating the advantages of qualitative approaches rather than seeking alternative methods. The need to re-think survey research before embarking on this course impelled the author to undertake a critical analysis of one of the survey’s most important assumptions, proposing a shift from standardization of stimulus to standardization of meanings in order to anchor the requirement of answer comparability on a more solid basis. This proposal for rapprochement with qualitative research is followed by a more detailed section in which the author distinguishes four different types of mixed survey strategies, combining two criteria (time order and function of qualitative procedures). The most significant parts of the constructed typology are then brought together in a model called the multilevel integrated survey approach. This methodological model is concretely illustrated in an empirical study of homophobic prejudice among teenagers. The example shows how in research practice analytical mixed strategies can be creatively combined in the same survey research design, contributing to improvements in data quality and the relevance of research findings.     

Confirmation and qualitative evidence-instances: justifying the use of qualitative research methods

This article is a preliminary attempt in outlining the directions for a new approach in confirming qualitative research findings. The basic argument is that traditional Confirmation Theory may be applied to establish a firmer epistemological foundation for the acceptance of hypotheses within qualitative-ethnographic research. While all aspects of Confirmation Theory are not applicable to the qualitative case, because the probability calculus is not used in qualitative studies, the basic logical framework of this theory, nevertheless, may be utilized to establish the credibility of qualitative findings. It is argued, therefore, that qualitative research findings, as they bear on the confirmation issue, may be properly considered as a sub-set of traditional Confirmation Theory. To do this, however, requires the development of certain justification rules unique to qualitative research. Some of these rules are developed, and an attempt is made to show how they conform to Hempel's classic development of confirmation.     

A review of techniques for treating missing data in OM survey research

The treatment of missing data has been overlooked by the OM literature, while other fields such as marketing, organizational behavior, economics, statistics and psychometrics have paid more attention to the issue. A review of 103 survey-based articles published in the Journal of Operations Management between 1993 and 2001 shows that listwise deletion, which is often the least accurate technique of dealing with missing data, is heavily utilized by OM researchers. The paper also discusses the research implications of missing data, types of missing data and concludes with recommendations on which techniques should be used under different circumstances in order to improve the treatment of missing data in OM survey research.     

Ensuring survey research data integrity in the era of internet bots

Quality & Quantity - We used an internet-based survey platform to conduct a cross-sectional survey regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ?+?population in the United States....     

Employers’ strategies in relation to their demand for labour: a sociological contribution

This article, in exploring the processes by which employers’ generalised demand for labour is translated into actual recruitment, highlights the role of management decision-making in this important, but relatively neglected area.     

Collective strategies for improving environmental performance: A case study of the biotechnology industry

This paper examines the potential contributions of institutional theory and the collective strategies framework to assist managers in emerging industries in developing better means of addressing societal concerns. Lack of understanding and difficulties in communication between companies in the forefront of new technology developments and a society that is concerned about the environment have led to many of the problems facing the biotechnology industry. Measures intended to protect the environment from potential adverse effects have frequently restricted activities in the new biotechnology field, even though scientists are themselves convinced of the safety and control they exert over their new technologies. Collective strategies can be instrumental in stabilising certain aspects of the environment. Proper selection of issues and coordinated action can be helpful to all industry participants by informing public perceptions and government regulations and help insure that major environmental trends will evolve in a manner beneficial to all concerned.     

Why and how to use vector autoregressive models for quality control: the guideline and procedures

While quality control on multivariate and serially correlated processes has attracted research attentions, a number of very detailed problems need to be overcome in order to construct practical control charts. We suggest guidelines for construction of control charts based on vector autoregressive (VAR) residuals. We discuss why VAR model is reasonable for real processes in nature, the use of VAR models to approximate multivariate serially correlated processes, residual estimation, selecting the number of variables, and selecting appropriate orders, among other issues. In addition, we illustrate an example employing VAR techniques to approximate a multivariate process previously examined and construct a control chart to monitor residuals. Last, we illustrate the potential development and use of the VAR residual chart to assist quality control and improvement.     

Retrospective studies with survey data: Problems in social science and epidemiology research

Large-scale population surveys are a valuable source of data for epidemiologists and social scientists interested in retrospective studies of health conditions. It may not be apparent that such data sources present many problems, one of which is data reliability. It can be shown statistically that where a relation exists between two variables measured with no or minimum error, this relation vanishes if either or both variables have sizable error components. Thus such data have little utility in assessing simple relations, let alone in making causal inferences. Another problem is that unreliability or measurement error affects the sensitivity and specificity of a measuring instrument in unpredictable ways. Solutions to the problems caused by data unreliability are suggested.     

自我评定：企业质量改进的有效手段

在从ISO9000:94转换到目前的ISO9000:2000中,比较引人注目的是标准给出了两个新的测量体系.即自我评定和顾客满意度测量.本文就自我评定的含义,理论依据、兴起、作用、流程、实践等作一个简要的阐述,以引起同仁对自我评定研究的响应和实践.     

The contribution of research and innovation to productivity

This paper examines the impact of investment in research and innovation on Australian market sector productivity. While previous studies have largely focused on a narrow class of private sector intangible assets as a source of productivity gains, this paper shows that there is a broad range of other business sector intangible assets that can significantly affect productivity. Moreover, the paper pays special attention to the role played by public funding for research and innovation. The empirical results suggest that there are significant spillovers to productivity from public sector R&D spending on research agencies and higher education. No evidence is found for productivity spillovers from indirect public funding for the business enterprise sector, civil sector or defence R&D. These findings have implications for government innovation policy as they provide insights into possible productivity gains from government funding reallocations.     

The qualitative interview in IS research: Examining the craft

The qualitative interview is one of the most important data gathering tools in qualitative research, yet it has remained an unexamined craft in IS research. This paper discusses the potential difficulties, pitfalls and problems of the qualitative interview in IS research. Building on Goffman’s seminal work on social life, the paper proposes a dramaturgical model as a useful way of conceptualizing the qualitative interview. Based on this model the authors suggest guidelines for the conduct of qualitative interviews.     

Certifying interviewers: the role of testing interviewers to improve data quality

The complexity of conducting personal interviews often requires both classroom training prior to fielding a survey and the certification of interviewers in the field. In an attempt to create a tool that would enable data collection agencies to tailor the training process and more effectively link the classroom to the field, the Census Bureau administered a certification exam to the interviewers of a new, more conversational style of interviewing in the redesign of the Survey of Income and Program Participation-Event History Calendar (SIPP-EHC). This research applied multilevel modeling to the 2010 and 2011 SIPP-EHC field test data to observe the effects of the variation in certification test score on measures of interviewer productivity—interview length and person non-response. From 2010 to 2011, short answer response questions replaced half of the multiple-choice response questions, finding short answer responses are better predictors of both interview length and person non-response than multiple-choice responses. These changes in the exam demonstrated a significant reduction in the interviewer effect seen on both outcomes.     

The conceptual contribution of education to research on entrepreneurship education

By building a bridge between the conceptual discussion of education science and entrepreneurship, this article demarcates the role of entrepreneurship education as a form of pedagogy and its connection to a progressive movement. As a form of pedagogy, entrepreneurship education changes the idea of the human being, brings action-orientation, autonomy and interplay between risk and responsibility to the centre of the learning process and challenges the previous ontological, epistemological and to some respect axiological bases of earlier learning paradigms and also presents new ideas for pedagogy and didactics. Thus, seen from an educational perspective, entrepreneurship can now be perceived as a form of pedagogy that renews the previous learning paradigms and furthers educational institutional practices.