The Social Dimension of Organizations: Recent experiences with Great Place to Work<Superscript>®</Superscript> assessment practices

This paper elaborates on conceptual, empirical and practical arguments why corporations need to focus on their social dimensions, in order to further enhance organizational performance. The paper starts with an introduction on the general trend towards inclusiveness and connectedness. It then elaborates on the phase-wise development of cultures and organizational structures. Managing corporate improvement by building cultures of trust is the central focus of this contribution. By showing the cultural dimensions of Great Places to Work and their workplace practices, worthwhile experiences leading to organizational improvement and superior financial performance are demonstrated.     

Effect of consumer self‐confidence on information search and dissemination: Mediating role of subjective knowledge

Consumers search for information about products to make a satisfactory purchase decision and gain knowledge about new features and updates. Consumers also use this knowledge to be vocal about their product experience because several consumers seek interpersonal recommendations. This phenomenon has contributed to the emergence of information search (IS) and information dissemination (ID) as a key research area in the field of consumer behaviour. However, the role of personal factors such as consumer self‐confidence and subjective knowledge has received little attention in the extant IS and ID literature. The major argument of this study is that information acquisition confidence and social outcome confidence enhance subjective knowledge and consequently increase the will of consumers to search and disseminate information in the context of smartphone buyers in India. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed hypotheses using a convenience sample of 259 consumers obtained through a cross‐sectional survey. The study shows that subjective knowledge is crucial in strengthening the association between consumer self‐confidence and consumer intention for IS and ID. Additionally, enhancing consumer’s social outcome confidence contributes towards high subjective knowledge and consequently accelerates information dissemination. Results suggest that firms could focus on enhancing the social outcome confidence and subjective knowledge of consumers to motivate them to disseminate information. The results also show that consumers with high confidence in information acquisition ability have the high subjective knowledge and are more likely to search for information. Overall, this study contributes to the emerging literature regarding the role of personal factors in IS and dissemination behaviour.     

Understanding Customers' Intention to Seek for a Better Deal in Electronic Marketplace: The Role of Tolerance for Sacrifice Gap

ABSTRACT

Online consumers make frequent use of the Internet to search for product and price information. In this study, an online model is proposed and empirically tested in investigating the role of tolerance for sacrifice gap in understanding customers' intention to seek for a better deal. Data was collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was employed to test hypotheses. The results show that tolerance for sacrifice gap was not only a strong predictor of intention for continuing search but also itself being related to consumer product knowledge, perceived control, and consumer product involvement. Direct relationship between another construct “perceived reduction in sacrifice gap” and “intention to seek for a better deal” was also found. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Leading and Following (Un)ethically in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Limen</Emphasis>

We propose a liminality-based analysis of the process of ethical leadership/followership in organizations. A liminal view presents ethical leadership as a process taking place in organizational contexts that are often characterized by high levels of ambiguity, which render the usual rules and preferences dubious or inadequate. In these relational spaces, involving leaders, followers, and their context, old frames may be questioned and new ones introduced in an emergent way, through subtle processes whose evolution and implications may not be easy to grasp even by those participating in them.     

An <Emphasis Type="Italic">ex ante</Emphasis> forecast on economically engineered bit rates for IPTV service via xDSL transports of internodal access

Concerning broadband IPTV service (of 12/24 MHz bandwidth) on a digital subscriber line (xDSL), an algorithm (plus a numerical spreadsheet) that computes the required, economically engineered bit rates (EEBRs) of associated (aggregated) traffic is developed. The EEBR is decided by user (residential/business) behavior at a wire center and is essential for economic design/implementation/expansion of xDSL infrastructure. Using an available set of (ex post) data on xDSL growth of services (collected over a period of semiannual terms) at a wire center, an ex ante forecast on EEBR is elucidated. An EEBR-based economic utilization of resources and connection admission control is indicated.     

多种UCAV群指挥控制综合信息系统研究

介绍了美军无人作战飞机(UCAV)系统中的电子信息系统的关键技术,提出了建立UCAV群联合作战指挥控制信息系统的设想,研究了UCAV群指挥控制综合信息系统的组成、功能、特点和需要重点研究的技术.     

综合电子信息系统体系工程方法研究与应用

为了实现综合电子信息系统的有效集成,提出了多视角的体系工 程顶层设计方法、标准规范研究先行的体系工程工作模式设计方法、现代项目管理和共性技 术管理以及使用管理相结合的体系工程管理方法、全过程验证的体系工程评估方法等。这些 方法和具体措施在工程实践中取得了很好的应用效果,对同类综合电子信息系统的工程研制 具有参考意义。     

The (Dis)Advantage of Friendship on Information Search and Satisfaction

Across four experiments, and focusing on consumer behaviour in a high uncertainty market (i.e., a used car market), this research shows that prior to a purchase, buyers are less motivated to search for information when they purchase a product from a friend (compared to someone they do not know). We also show that buyers are more willing to search for information after a transaction when sellers are their friends, a reversal in search behaviour due to the greater social risk that buyers bear when dealing with a friend. Finally, this research shows that both the transaction outcome (i.e., positive versus negative) and the buyer–seller relationship determine the degree to which people are satisfied or dissatisfied with a seller. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling Intuition in Retail Site Assessment (MIRSA): making sense of retail location using retailers' intuitive judgements as a support for decision-making

Analogues are used by retailers as a forecasting method and as performance benchmarks for new sites. This paper outlines an innovative analogue method that uses the ‘intuitive’ field-level judgements of retail directors obtained through cognitive mapping to classify sites according to their similarity to store analogues. The paper also discusses the problems of existing methods of site assessment relating to their tendency to underplay managerial judgements; outlines an innovative qualitative clustering method that mirrors decision-makers' knowledge to identify analogues by their degree of similarity to a new site; and assesses its value with reference to user responses in a live ‘real-time’ decision situation.     

一种末端加载型300MHz/1GHz双频车载超宽带探地雷达天线设计

为满足高速铁路无损探测需兼顾低频探测深度与高频探测精度的要求,采用理论计算 与软件仿真结合的方法,设计制作了一种双频带（300 MHz/1 GHz）指数型TEM喇叭天线 并对其进行了测量。所设计的指数型TEM喇叭天线采用末端加载和适当天线臂切削来实现此 超宽带天线的双频带工作。仿真与实测结果表明,天线分别工作在中心为360MHz、带宽 约为110 MHz的低频带和中心为1020MHz、带宽约为260MHz的高频带,相对 带宽均大于20%。实测天线的接收信号保真度较高,拖尾持续时间短,满足设计要求。此外 ,这种双频带天线系统可减少雷达系统天线和采样盒等设备的使用数量,降低雷达系统的成本 ,有较好工程应用前景。     

Dependence between the global gold market and emerging stock markets (E7+1): Evidence from Granger causality using quantile and quantile‐on‐quantile regression methods

This study examined the dependence between gold and stocks during 2002–18 in seven emerging countries. The study combined the bivariate cross‐quantilogram introduced recently with quantile‐on‐quantile regression (QQR) approaches to conduct comprehensive and complementary analyses. The QQR results for the full sample revealed a weak positive dependence in all the quantiles of gold and stock returns across all the countries selected during mild market conditions. The results for pre and post‐crisis periods largely were consistent with those obtained for the full sample, except for Turkey (pre‐crisis), and China and Indonesia (post‐crisis). The results of the causality test‐in‐mean (return) and that of the causality test‐in‐variance revealed no causal relation between stock and gold in the pre‐crisis period, while causality ran only from gold to some stocks in the post‐crisis period. Further, while there was volatility causality running only from gold to stocks during the pre‐crisis period, the volatility causality between the two markets was very high during the post‐crisis period. Therefore, we suggest that gold may have been a hedge for stocks during the pre‐crisis compared to the post‐crisis period. Further, international risk factors should be considered in optimal investment decisions between domestic and global markets' assets (stocks and gold).