Analysis of Instantaneous and Early Failures in Weibull Distribution

There are many situations in life testing experiment where an item fail instantaneously and hence the observed lifetime is reported as zero. The items that fail prematurely are called early failures. We propose a modified Weibull distribution as a suitable model to represent such situations by mixture of a singular distribution at zero and a two parameter Weibull distribution. We obtain the maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters and their asymptotic distributions. The methods are illustrated on drying of woods under different experiments and schedules reported by Vanmann (Research report, 1991:2).     

Impact of culture on ‘partner selection criteria’ in East Asian international joint ventures

Selecting the right partner is important for the success of alliances and joint ventures. For international joint ventures (IJVs) from diverse cultures the partner selection process can become complicated. Prior studies have investigated the alliances and joint ventures to develop a set of objective criteria for evaluating potential partners. This paper reports the study of IJVs formed by Singapore firms in Peoples Republic of China and India. The intent was to develop a methodology for identifying partner selection criteria in a cross-cultural setting. The findings reveal that the partner selection process follows a different logic in Confucian societies. Trust has been established to be essential for developing enduring co-operative relationships. The paper explores the concept of trust in relation to commitment and control in the context of the Confucian culture. We discover that trust is critical to partner selection. Cultural differences do not significantly alter the partner selection criteria for Singapore firms. Results support the view that while Chinese may depend on networks for social solidarity, social trust does extends beyond the family and is necessary for harmonious and successful joint ventures.     

实验设计的新前沿

产品和过程开发是业务长期生存的基础，生存和成功的关键是培养创新和减少产品上市时间，同时使产品到达最佳性能。     

The Impact of Survey Methodology and Context on Central Tendency,Nonresponse and Associations of Subjective Indicators of Government Performance

A comparison is given of (ordinal) measures of trust in government institutions that were collected with the aim of facilitating comparisons between different modes and contexts of data collection. Statistical analyses reveal that the mode effect could amount upto a 10% change of item nonresponse and a 9% change of the level of trust, whereas the context effect could lead upto a 19% change of the bivariate associations of trust. The observed changes of both measures of central tendency and of associations affect conclusions of social scientific research in isolated studies, which implies that comparative studies are seriously hampered by bias related to mode and context, two sources of obscurity adding to the two other threats which are differences of sample source and differences of question phrasing.     

Systemtheorie,Shareholder Value-Konzept und Stakeholder-Konzept als theoretisch-konzeptionelle Bezugsrahmen der Balanced Scorecard

Zusammenfassung  Die theoretisch-konzeptionelle Würdigung der Balanced Scorecard steht trotz ihres Siegeszuges in der Praxis noch immer in den Anf?ngen. Der vorliegende Beitrag weist die Systemtheorie, das Shareholder Value-Konzept und das Stakeholder-Konzept als theoretisch-konzeptionelle Bezugsrahmen der Balanced Scorecard aus. Damit werden zugleich Modifikationsm?glichkeiten der Balanced Scorecard angedeutet, die sich aus einer noch konsequenteren Anlehnung an einen der drei Ans?tze ergeben k?nnten. Prof. Dr. Jan K?rnert ist Inhaber des Stiftungslehrstuhls für Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insb. Internationales Finanzmanagement/Kapitalm?rkte Dr. Cornelia Wolf ist Gesch?ftsführerin des Studentenwerkes Greifswald     

Explicit filters and supply chain design

Due to the complexity of present day supply chains it is important to select the simplest supply chain scheduling decision support system (DSS) which will determine and place orders satisfactorily. We propose to use a generic design framework, termed the explicit filter methodology, to achieve this objective. In doing so we compare the explicit filter approach to the implicit filter approach utilised in previous OR research the latter focusing on minimising a cost function. Although the eventual results may well be similar with both approaches it is much clearer to the designer, both why and how, an ordering system will reduce the Bullwhip effect via the explicit filter approach. The “explicit filter” approach produces a range of DSS designs corresponding to best practice. These may be “mixed and matched” to generate a number of competitive delivery pipelines to suit the specific business scenario.     

How firms respond to being rated

While many rating systems seek to help buyers overcome information asymmetries when making purchasing decisions, we investigate how these ratings also influence the companies being rated. We hypothesize that ratings are particularly likely to spur responses from firms that receive poor ratings, and especially those that face lower‐cost opportunities to improve or that anticipate greater benefits from doing do. We test our hypotheses in the context of corporate environmental ratings that guide investors to select ‘socially responsible,’ and avoid ‘socially irresponsible,’ companies. We examine how several hundred firms responded to corporate environmental ratings issued by a prominent independent social rating agency, and take advantage of an exogenous shock that occurred when the agency expanded the scope of its ratings. Our study is among the first to theorize about the impact of ratings on subsequent performance, and we introduce important contingencies that influence firm response. These theoretical advances inform stakeholder theory, institutional theory, and economic theory. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using survey data to test market efficiency in the foreign exchange markets

The paper uses cointegration methods to test the market efficiency hypothesis (MEH) in the foreign exchange markets. Four exchange rates are considered-all relative to the US dollar: BP, DM, SF and JY. Survey data on expectations are used to see whether the violation of the MEH is due to expectational errors or risk premia. The results differ for the one-week ahead and the one-month ahead forecasts. With the weekly data we conclude that it is risk premia, and with the monthly data it is both expectational errors and risk premia that account for the violation of the MEH. Given the volatility of the exchange markets, it appears that forecasts over an extended period fail tests of rationality, but one-week ahead forecasts do not fail such tests.     

Technical and scale efficiencies of meat goat farms in the USA

This study determines i) scale and technical efficiencies, ii) marginal productive contributions for inputs and outputs and iii) efficiency drivers of meat goat farms in the USA. We estimate an input distance function (IDF) using a stochastic production frontier (SPF) technique. The average technical efficiency (TE) for the USA meat goat whole farm was 0.74. The operator education level, percentage of annual net farm income from the goat operation, regional differences and holding of an off farm job are the efficiency drivers of USA meat goat farms. We find increasing returns to scale (RTS) for USA meat goat farms. Our results suggest that USA meat goat farms can be scale efficient if their optimal size of operation is greater than approximately 64 goats or greater than 40 breeding does. Empirical Monte Carlo (MC) simulation techniques show the consistency of finite-sample properties for the input distance function.