Experimental comparison of Web, electronic and mail survey technologies in operations management

With the growing acceptance of the Web (Internet) and electronic mail, it is no surprise that researchers are using an increasingly diverse set of survey technologies to gather data from managers. However, the effectiveness of these electronic technologies has not been rigorously assessed, especially for gathering data from establishment-level surveys (i.e. firm- or plant-level). To that end, a stratified sample of large and small, service and manufacturing firms was constructed, followed by random assignment to one of four survey technologies: mail, fax, PC disk-by-mail and Web-page survey (combined with e-mail notification). For each treatment, managers are queried about their use of forecasting characteristics, yielding a sample of 118 firms. Unfortunately, only a low percentage (34%) of firms and managers assigned to the Web technology treatment both reported access to e-mail and were willing provide their e-mail addresses; they tended to be large firms and from the service sector. Moreover, those that did offer e-mail addresses were only about half as likely to respond to the Web-based survey as those targeted by other survey technologies. However, Web, fax and disk-by-mail technologies yielded higher item completion rates than mail. Limited statistical evidence indicated that respondents using computer-based survey technologies (i.e. Web or disk-by-mail) generally reported forecasting characteristics that are associated with firms exhibiting best practices. Thus, a multi-technology survey approach using the Web and fax can yield a strong combination of benefits over a traditional mail survey.     

Classification of various attacks and their defence mechanism in online social networks: a survey

Due to the popularity and user friendliness of the Internet, numbers of users of online social networks (OSNs) and social media have grown significantly. However, globally utilised, social networks are the consequence of the lack of understanding of secrecy and protection on OSN and media has increased. Secrecy and surety of OSNs need to be inquired from various positions. According to recent studies, OSN users expose their private information such as email address, phone number etc. In this paper, we have presented a high-level classification of recent OSN attacks for recognising the problem and analysing the blow of such attacks on World Wide Web. We have also discussed OSN attacks on different social networking web applications by citing certain recent reports such as Kaspersky security network and Sophos security threat report. We also offer some simple-to-implement user practice tips to protect the system and user’s information. In addition to this, we have discussed a comprehensive analysis of numerous defensive approaches on OSN security. Lastly, based on the acknowledged strength and faults of these defensive approaches, we have explained open research issues.     

Sentiment classification of Chinese online reviews: a comparison of factors influencing performances

With the growing availability and popularity of online consumer reviews, people have been trying to seek sentiment-aware applications to gather and understand these opinion-rich texts. Thus, sentiment classification arises in response to analyse opinions of others automatically. In this paper, experiments of sentiment classification of Chinese online reviews across different domains are conducted by considering a couple of factors which potentially influence the sentiment classification performance. Experimental results indicate that the size of training sets and the number of features have certain influence on classification accuracy. In addition, there is no significant difference in classification accuracy when using Document Frequency, Chi-square Statistic and Information Gain, respectively, to reduce dimensionality. Low-order n-grams outperforms high-order n-grams in terms of accuracy if n-grams is taken as features. Furthermore, when words and combination of words are selected as features, the accuracy of adjectives is much close to that of NVAA (the combination of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs), and is better than others as well.     

A comparison of nonresponse in mail,telephone, and face-to-face surveys

This article reports a meta-analysis of 45 studies that explicitly compare the response obtained using a mail, telephone or face-to-face survey. The data analysis uses a generalized hierarchical linear model. Sampling procedure (e.g., local convenience sample, random general sample), saliency of topic, and research organization (university, government versus market research) had an effect on the response. On the average, the face-to-face condition achieved the highest completion rate (70.3%), the telephone survey the next highest (67.2%), and the mail survey the lowest (61.3%). There is a significant interaction with the year of publication: The response to face-to-face and telephone surveys is going down in the period covered by this analysis (1947 to 1992), but the response to mail surveys is going up slightly. We attribute this to the large amount of research on nonresponse problems with mail surveys, and recommend more research and development in this direction for face-to-face and telephone methods.     

Fundamentalists vs. chartists: Learning and predictor choice dynamics

In a simple, forward looking univariate model of price determination we investigate the evolution of expectations dynamics in the presence of two types of agents: fundamentalists and chartists. In particular, we combine evolutionary selection among heterogeneous classes of models through predictor choice dynamics based on a logit model, with adaptive learning in the form of parameters updating within each class of rules. We find that, for different parameterizations, it can happen that fundamentalists drive chartists completely out of the market or vice versa, and also that heterogeneous equilibria in which fundamentalists and chartists coexist are possible. Interestingly, though, only equilibria in which fundamentalists outperform chartists turn out to be adaptively learnable by agents.     

Understanding online equity funding ecology: a comparison of the greater Los Angeles area and Silicon Valley

Quality & Quantity - Guided by the community ecology perspective and resource dependence theory, this study examines how organizational forms and resources co-influence the financial flow among...     

Estimating floating voters: a comparison between the ecological inference and the survey methods

There are two main approaches to estimating the proportion of the electorate who are floating voters: the survey method and the ecological estimate method. Both the methods have their advantages and their problems. The main difficulties with the survey method are the coverage of the sample and the problems introduced by reliance on the quality of memory of the subjects. Ecological estimates have different problems, the principal of which is known as the ecological fallacy. The aim of this paper is to assess whether the survey and ecological estimates of voter swing between two elections are significantly different. For this purpose I will consider the 2006 and 2008 Italian Parliamentary elections. Given the short temporal gap between these two elections, both the methods should give reliable estimates, as the shorter the time between the two elections, the fewer the problems which will be encountered by subjects recalling the party they voted for in the previous one, and the fewer the changes which will have taken place in the composition of the population between the two elections. The ecological data I will employ comprise all the votes cast in both of the elections under consideration (2006 and 2008), at the polling station level. In Italy there are about 60,000 polling stations, and I will analyse the data from these using the Goodman Model. The survey data has been provided by Italian National Election Studies (ITANES), and consists of a large representative sample, obtained by interviews conducted by CATI.     

Stochastic ordering and schur-convex functions in comparison of linear experiments

The usual ordering of linear experiments is defined by quadratic risk of attainable linear estimators. It is shown that under normality assumption this ordering can be introduced in a risk-free way by stochastic ordering of the estimators. Moreover an application of Schur-convex functions to design of experiments is presented. Partly supported by CPBP 0.1.02.     

New data collection modes for surveys: a comparative analysis of the influence of survey mode on question-wording effects

New opportunities have recently emerged in survey practice, coupled with a need to make changes, and alternative survey data collection modes such as those based on new technologies (for example, the Web and mobile phones) have become a focus of interest. Studies have considered the biases due to data collection modes and to the wording of questions in questionnaires, but they have rarely dealt with the interaction between the two phenomena. This paper presents the results of a study on the interactions between some of the best-known question-wording effects and three data collection modes: face-to-face, Web-based and SMS-based (Short Text Messaging). The results have highlighted some interesting characteristics of the various modes—innovative ones in particular—and have confirmed the existence of potential interactions between data collection modes and question-wording effects. The findings may have significant implications for the study and practice of surveys and entail that, when surveys are designed, account is taken of specific factors associated with the method used to word the questions in questionnaires.     

Economic assumptions and choice of functional forms: comparison of top down and bottom up approaches

Two alternative model building approaches are analyzed and compared. The general to specific modeling (top down approach) starts with a general model and subjects it to a sequence of restrictions to determine an acceptable specific model. This approach can start with a series expansion and the concavity or homotheticity conditions can be imposed to modify it into a cost or a production function. The simple to general modeling (bottom up approach) starts with a well known simple model and extends it until a complete system is formed. This approach can start with a Cobb-Douglas function (which satisfies the concavity and homogeneity conditions) and extends it to include the desired complexity. Relative advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches are discussed and tabulated. The electricity generation data is applied to compare the performance of these two approaches.

Unemployment and self-employment: a survey

The currently high level of unemployment emphasises the importance (in policy terms) of the potential contribution of a self employment alternative. Here the author examines the available UK evidence on the degree of movement from unemployment to self employment, the factors influencing this movement and the role of labour market information and training.     

The development of delinquency during adolescence: a comparison of missing data techniques

Conclusions on the development of delinquent behaviour during the life-course can only be made with longitudinal data, which is regularly gained by repeated interviews of the same respondents. Missing data are a problem for the analysis of delinquent behaviour during the life-course shown with data from an adolescents’ four-wave panel. In this article two alternative techniques to cope with missing data are used: full information maximum likelihood estimation and multiple imputation. Both methods allow one to consider all available data (including adolescents with missing information on some variables) in order to estimate the development of delinquency. We demonstrate that self-reported delinquency is systematically underestimated with listwise deletion (LD) of missing data. Further, LD results in false conclusions on gender and school specific differences of the age–crime relationship. In the final discussion some hints are given for further methods to deal with bias in panel data affected by the missing process.     

The development of delinquency during adolescence: a comparison of missing data techniques revisited

Quality & Quantity - Conclusions about the individual development of delinquent behaviours during the life-course are often made by repeatedly interviewing the same respondents (i.e. panel...     

Correction to: The development of delinquency during adolescence: a comparison of missing data techniques revisited

Quality & Quantity -     

Betting on a buzz: Mispricing and inefficiency in online sportsbooks

Bookmakers sell claims to bettors that depend on the outcomes of professional sports events. Like other financial assets, the wisdom of crowds could help sellers to price these claims more efficiently. We use the Wikipedia profile page views of professional tennis players involved in over 10,000 singles matches to construct a buzz factor. This measures the difference between players in their pre-match page views relative to the usual number of views they received over the previous year. The buzz factor significantly predicts mispricing by bookmakers. Using this fact to forecast match outcomes, we demonstrate that a strategy of betting on players who received more pre-match buzz than their opponents can generate substantial profits. These results imply that sportsbooks could price outcomes more efficiently by listening to the buzz.     

The construction of choice: a computational voting model

Social choice models usually assume that choice occurs among exogenously given and non-decomposable alternatives. On the contrary, choice is often among objects that are constructed by individuals or institutions as complex bundles made up of many interdependent components. In this paper we present a model of object construction in majority voting and show that, in general, by appropriately changing these bundles, different social outcomes may be obtained, depending upon initial conditions and agenda; that intransitive cycles and median voter dominance may be made to appear or disappear; and that decidability may be ensured by increasing manipulability or viceversa.     

The theory of contests: a survey

This paper presents a survey of the theory of contests. This paper is an outgrowth of lecture notes of Ph.D. courses given in Carlos III University, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Universidad de Málaga. I would especially like to thank to Carmen Beviá for her comments and suggestions and Matthias Dahm for allowing me free access to a joint paper and for correcting many mistakes and very helpful suggestions. I also thank Clara Eugenia García, Cristian Litan, Carlos Pimienta, Santiago Sánchez-Pages, Ramon Torregrosa, Galina Zudenkova and the students of this course for their helpful comments and CAICYT for research grant SEJ2005-06167/ECON.     

Efficiency comparison of the Wilcoxon tests in paired and independent survey samples

The efficiency concepts of Bahadur and Pitman are used to compare the Wilcoxon tests in paired and independent survey samples. A comparison through the length of corresponding confidence intervals is also done. Simple conditions characterizing the dominance of a procedure are derived. Statistical tests for checking these conditions are suggested and discussed.