E-comprehension: Evaluating B2B websites using readability formulae

The Internet has often been referred to as an “infocentric” medium. Information abounds on topics, people, products and companies. With the multiplicity and diverse variety of web pages containing information, comprehension becomes a critical issue, and a major facet of comprehension is readability of content. The study described in this paper examines the readability of the text on business-to-business (B2B) websites. First, the paper presents an overview of readability formulae. It then applies selected readability formulae to web pages in the semiconductor industry. The study explores how readability formulae can provide quick feedback to web marketers based on key indicators such as sentence length, proportion of difficult words and frequency of polysyllabic words. It also demonstrates how the relative readability of a company's web pages can be evaluated against those of its competitors. In closing, the paper considers the managerial implications associated with the use of readability formulae and offers directions for future study in this relatively under-researched domain.     

Distributional assumptions in the theory of oligopoly information exchange

We analyze the profitability of information sharing among Cournot oligopolists receiving private information about random demand. In this setting, previous authors showed information exchange to be unprofitable when firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. We introduce a measure of the increase in the accuracy of firms' demand forecasts when information is shared. We provide two examples showing when this measure is large, information exchange is profitable, even though firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. Moreover, we show that in the linear-conditional-expectations framework, which has been standard in the literature, this measure reveals these accuracy gains to be severely limited.     

Distributional assumptions in the theory of oligopoly information exchange

We analyze the profitability of information sharing among Cournot oligopolists receiving private information about random demand. In this setting, previous authors showed information exchange to be unprofitable when firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. We introduce a measure of the increase in the accuracy of firms' demand forecasts when information is shared. We provide two examples showing when this measure is large, information exchange is profitable, even though firms' marginal costs are constant and outputs are perfect substitutes. Moreover, we show that in the linear-conditional-expectations framework, which has been standard in the literature, this measure reveals these accuracy gains to be severely limited.     

Axiomatic measures of intellectual influence

Measuring influence allows the study of such issues as the impact and reputation of scientists and scientific publications, the dynamics of innovation, and the construction of ranking algorithms for search engines in the world wide web. Ranking methods that measure influence are typically based on the information contained in the network of communications between different entities (scholarly publications, patents, web pages). This paper presents within the same framework recent developments that use the axiomatic approach to derive ranking methods. Two related but essentially different ranking problems are studied: journal ranking problems and scholar ranking problems. The paper concludes with open theoretical and empirical questions for future research.     

动态网页制作及ASP技术应用

ASP作为目前一种比较成熟的服务器端脚本编写环境,在网页制作中得到广泛的应用。ASP结合ADO能快速地实现对数据库的访问。本文介绍了ASP同数据库建立连接的两种方法,一种是通过OLE DB连接ODBC驱动程序,在ODBC的系统DSN中指定数据源进行连接;另一种是通过快速的OLE DB Provider技术连接数据库;同时介绍了动态网页分页功能的实现方法,增强了页面的可视化效果,实现了页面间的快速跳转,方便查询。     

Firm size, web site content, and financial performance in the transportation industry

The transportation industry has been revolutionized by the World Wide Web with the Internet rapidly emerging as the optimal medium for the exchange of information between shippers and carriers throughout the supply chain. Despite this, many motor carrier firms may still not be placing enough emphasis on the Internet. Recent empirical research studies suggest that Internet utilization in the supply chain is significantly influenced by firm size. This study analyzes the informational and interactive content of the Top 100 U.S. motor carrier firms' web sites to examine the relationship between firm size and Internet utilization. In addition, as there is little research that assesses the payoff in terms of benefits for firms that place more emphasis on the Internet for commercial activity, secondary financial data are used to evaluate the association between Internet utilization and firm financial performance in the transportation industry.     

互联网电视真相

什么是互联网电视？“顾名思义就是可以上网的电视,但并非接上网线就可所向披靡地浏览网页,你只能看到电视厂家推送的有限内容。”电视机生产企业会这样跟你解释,这听起来有点古怪,但事实就是如此。     

基于物联网技术的智能购物车设计

为了有效解决超市中出现的排队等待结账难、手推购物车不方便、寻找目标商品难等问题,设计了基于超高频率射频识别技术和超宽带室内定位技术,并辅以手机网页和云端大数据库完成的智能购物车系统,在车载自助结账系统、购物车智能跟随系统、云端大数据库自主导航系统3个方面做了突破。首先,顾客进入到超市之后,只需要扫码领取一辆智能购物车,然后便可以在手机上完成对购物车的操控,同时手机的网页也会实时显示顾客的购物信息,最后,顾客不再需要排队等待结账,只需要在手机网页上完成支付即可。设计结果表明,智能购物车可以有效解决超市中存在的问题,实现购物过程的全自助。设计方案可应用于智能超市,取代传统超市的人工结账和导购,可以有效缓解超市人员的工作压力。     

Deregulation, Business Strategy, and Wages in the Airline Industry

This study assesses empirically the relationship between business strategy and wages within the context of a significant environmental change—deregulation of the airline industry. Regression results provide limited support for the hypotheses that firms' business strategies would lead to systematic differences in average earnings levels of airline carriers, depending on whether or not the industry was regulated, and that these strategies would operate over and above firms' ability to pay higher wages. It appears that business strategies may be linked to their human resource outcomes even in a heavily unionized environment.     

Scheduling a capacitated single machine with time deteriorating job values

We address the scheduling problem with the following characteristics: (i) there is a single machine available, (ii) the machine has limited capacity, and (iii) job value deteriorates with time. The problem is motivated from several real world situations, such as, downloading process of web pages, and scheduling of multiplexes. Since the problem is NP-hard, we propose new heuristics based on a multiplicative piece-wise metric as an approximation of the slope of job value deterioration. Computational results show that the proposed heuristics perform better than other existing heuristics for similar types of problems.     

Determinants and impacts of environmental performance in SMEs

The paper analyzes empirical evidence from 368 environmentally responsive small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in four industries. The results demonstrate that firms' environmental performance cannot be viewed as a one-dimensional concept and that determinants of firms' environmental performance depend on the dimension retained. The impacts of firms' environmental performance on their innovativeness and competitiveness vary according to the industry within which they operate. However, impacts on product and process innovations as well as on managerial innovations are positive and significant in all four industries.     

Is quality accreditation effective? Evidence from the childcare market

The ineffectiveness of a quality accreditation mechanism can be attributed to the inability of the accreditation status to provide consumers with information they do not already possess. I present a structural model of demand allowing consumers to infer quality from both accreditation status and firm reputation. I then estimate this model to assess the effectiveness and the impact of the national accreditation system for childcare centers on consumer welfare. My results suggest that disregarding the endogeneity of firms' accreditation choices significantly underestimates the effectiveness of the accreditation system. However, on average consumers do not gain much information beyond what they have inferred from a firm's reputation. The estimates of structural parameters are then used to quantify the value of this information to consumers.     

突破性创新、互补性资产与企业间合作的整合研究

主导企业在技术变革中经历了技术劣势后，这种劣势在何种程度上转化为商业劣势取决于突破性创新的破坏幅度。如果新技术只破坏了主导企业的技术能力而没有破坏互补性资产的价值．那么主导企业的绩效将会改进：如果新技术同时破坏了主导企业的技术能力和互补性资产的价值．那么主导企业的绩效将会下滑。正是由于大量突破性创新属于前者并且主导企业控制了大部分的互补性资产．开发了突破性创新的新进入企业只能与主导企业建立合作关系．共同分享创新利润。     

电子商务对企业内部权威分配的影响分析:以中石油、中石化为例

如今“电子商务”不再是一项单纯的技术进步，而更多地意味着企业经营管理模式的升级换代。在电子商务如何影响企业组织方面．目前很少有研究关注电子商务的发展带来的对企业内部权威分配尤其是对集权与分权安排的影响。本文以中国石油和中国石化两个传统行业企业发展电子商务的历程为案例．分析了在电子商务的环境下，企业权威分配将如何发生变化。本文认为，电子商务影响了内部交易成本（信息成本、代理成本等）。特别是带来了内部信息成本的降低，从而使企业的最优权威分配向相对集权方面转变。同时．这种组织结构上的变化将为企业带来规模经济效益、市场力量加强、降低内部竞争、降低监督成本等绩效。     

中国标准网上免费信息资源与检索技巧

通过5个大型标准网站介绍了网上的标准信息资源,对这5个网站内检索中国标准的免费数据库在可检字段、检索功能、检索结果等方面进行了对比研究。介绍了检索标准信息的技巧:根据可检字段和检索结果,选择适合用户需求的网站;由于各网站可检字段的输入方式有差异,要以正确的方式输入检索词;获取标准的全文文献时,可先通过网上检索快速得到标准号,再从印刷型的全文文献中复印全文。     

Understanding corporate B2B web sites' effectiveness from North American and European perspective

The globalization of economic activities has led multinational business-to-business (B2B) firms to use their corporate web sites extensively to communicate with their stakeholders. Using a field study of 368 business customers, this paper examines three factors of information that influence corporate web sites' effectiveness in a B2B context and whether these factors differ by web site user's national origin. Results indicate that informativeness of a corporate web site is important for both North American and European visitors. Quality of information is important for European users but not an important aspect for North American users. Usability is the most important factor for North American users but it is not important for European users. Implications of these results are discussed for managerial practices and further research.     

Cost Efficiency and Product Mix Clusters across the Spanish Banking Industry

The competitive conditions under which Spanish bankingfirms operate have become much tighter. In these circumstances,inefficiencies should disappear, and if this does not occur,appropriate explanations should be explored. This paper doesexactly that, by estimating cost efficiency scores and assessingwhether they are biased by productive specialization. Thesequestions are not new, unlike the technique employed, whichenables us to evaluate firms' efficiencies by comparing them onlywith those focusing on similar specializations, without the needto specify separate frontiers for different output mixes. Resultsshow that firms' efficiency scores might be downward or upwardbiased when compared with all other firms in the industry, insteadof only with those focusing on similar activities.     

Endogenous horizontal mergers under cost uncertainty

This paper presents a study of endogenous horizontal mergers under cost uncertainty. Before knowing the exact values of their costs, firms decide sequentially whether or not to join a merger. After the merger decision is made, uncertainty is resolved and firms engage in Cournot competition with incomplete information about one another's costs. Due to production rationalization, the merged firms enjoy an advantage over non-merged firms in the sense that the merged firms' expected cost is lower. I show that mergers occur if and only if the uncertainty is large and that the larger the uncertainty, the greater the number of firms that will merge. Although a merger reduces competition and therefore hurts consumers, it improves productivity under cost uncertainty. I find that a merger increases social welfare whenever there are at least four firms in the industry before the merger.     

Uncertain regulatory timing and market dynamics

Using a dynamic model of capacity accumulation, I examine the relationship between uncertainty about the timing of a new Pigouvian tax and oligopolistic competition. I find that for some market structures uncertainty about the timing of the regulatory change leads firms to increase investment. These results stem from the nature of the uncertainty and its interaction with firms' strategic incentive to engage in capacity races. They dramatize the importance of accounting for initial conditions when forecasting firms' reactions to anticipated regulatory changes. In addition, I find that more protracted uncertainty leads to greater welfare costs.     

Social and organizational capital: Building the context for innovation

In the light of the key role intellectual capital has for firms' innovation capability, this paper analyzes the influence of two of their dimensions, organizational capital and social capital, on firms' product innovation, and the moderating role of radicalness. Unlike previous studies, the unit of analysis will not be the firm, but the R&D department. Thus, our research, conducted with a sample of Spanish industrial companies, provides a new insight with interesting results. First, our findings show that social capital favours firms' product innovation, especially under radical innovations. Second, organizational capital has an indirect effect on product innovation through positive influence on social capital. This implies that firms can stimulate communication and interaction among people, and therefore innovative activity, by means of explicit and codified knowledge (organizational capital).