Interactive Mining of Strong Friends from Social Networks and Its Applications in E-Commerce

Social networks are generally made of individuals who are linked by some types of interdependencies such as friendship. Most individuals in social networks have many linkages in terms of friends, connections, and/or followers. Among these linkages, some of them are stronger than others. For instance, some friends may be acquaintances of an individual, whereas others may be friends who care about him or her (e.g., who frequently post on his or her wall). In this study, we integrate data mining with social computing to form a social network mining algorithm, which helps the individual distinguish these strong friends from a large number of friends in a specific portion of the social networks in which he or she is interested. Moreover, our mining algorithm allows the individual to interactively change his or her mining parameters. Furthermore, we discuss applications of our social mining algorithm to organizational computing and e-commerce     

Determinants of employee willingness to use feedback for performance improvement: cultural and organizational interpretations

This study was designed to identify determinants of employee willingness to use feedback for performance improvement. The proposed determinants included objectives of appraisal, supervisor's knowledge of subordinate's job, agreed plan for performance improvement, trust in supervisor and perceived fairness and accuracy of performance evaluation. Data were collected in two phases. The first phase consisted of a questionnaire survey among 100 Hong Kong Chinese employees working in public and private sector organizations. Regression analysis of questionnaire data indicated that agreed plan for performance improvement and perceived fairness and accuracy of performance evaluation had significant positive effects on employee willingness to use performance feedback. In the second phase, focus group interviews were held to triangulate survey findings. Interview data suggested that Chinese cultural characteristics of paternalism and personalism influenced the underlying dynamics of the evaluation process. Findings are interpreted in the context of employees cultural and organizational background.     

Macroeconomic consequences of increased productivity in less developed economies

This paper examines the impact of improvements in productivity on prices, output, the real wage rate and the balance of payments. Within the context of the model used in this paper, an improvement in productivity can take two alternative forms: (1) a cost saving for a given output and (2) an increase in production without a direct decrease in employment. The results presented are based on a simple model of a small open economy that includes some key features of less developed economies. It is shown that, in the presence of monetary and fiscal restraints, an improvement in productivity leads to increases in output, employment and the real wage and the effect on the balance of payments, in the short and the medium runs, is also positive. We find that whether or not improvement in productivity is import saving plays a crucial role in both comparative static and simulation exercises.     

Consumer intentions to engage in s-commerce: a cross-national study

Social media has reached global proportions; yet, little is known about how consumers engage with firms in ways that lead to social commerce (s-commerce) – an emerging area of importance in the literature. This study addresses this gap and extends previous research by examining factors that influence consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce in four countries: Chile, Spain, South Africa and Australia. Specifically, this study develops and tests a model of consumers’ intentions to engage in s-commerce through brands’ Facebook pages incorporating personal variables (involvement in brands’ products and services, satisfaction with brands’ Facebook page), trust variables (message credibility of Facebook posts, trust in firms’ Facebook) and social variables (peer communication, social media dependency, online social interaction propensity) on predicting intentions to purchase products and services through brands’ Facebook pages if s-commerce was available to them. The findings show that the main drivers of s-commerce engagement are message credibility, trust in the brands’ Facebook, involvement, peer communication and online social interaction propensity, as influencers of consumer satisfaction with brands’ Facebook and social media dependency, which in turn drive intentions to engage in s-commerce. Contributing to theory and practice, these relationships are discussed for the four countries involved in the study.     

Alibaba: Entrepreneurial growth and global expansion in B2B/B2C markets

The purpose of this case-based research is to analyze and discuss Alibaba Group (hereafter Alibaba) and its entrepreneurial growth and global expansion in B2B/B2C markets. The paper uses company and industry-specific data and surveys to analyze a fast growing Chinese B2B/B2C firm and its internationalization and expansion in global markets. Findings of the work reveal that in a short time, Alibaba has become a major entrepreneurial icon and global player and continues to grow worldwide because of its well-planned business initiatives and B2B/B2C-based business models. The paper also provides implications in the area of international entrepreneurship and its related areas. International entrepreneurs need to learn from Alibaba’s fast growing business model and dynamic growth because of its competitive platforms and Web-based strategies which helped the company to target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in global markets. Within the areas of international entrepreneurship and international business, the paper also provides discussion which deals with the changing e-commerce industry and its future growth and developments.     

The impact of the 2005–2010 rice price increase on consumption in rural Bangladesh

This article studies the impact of the rice price increase between 2005 and 2010 on consumption in rural Bangladesh. Using the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) data, we compare net rice buyers and sellers to self‐sufficient households. To identify the effect of rice price changes on household consumption of rice, nonrice food and nonfood items, we employ a difference‐in‐differences (DiD) technique. Our findings indicate that the surge in domestic rice prices between 2005 and 2010 reduced the nonrice food consumption of net rice buyer households by 7%, compared to the households who are self‐sufficient in rice production. However, it did neither affect their rice nor their nonfood consumption. In contrast, while we find no significant effect of rice price increases on the rice consumption of net rice sellers, we observe a 9% increase in their nonrice food consumption. In such situation, a subsidy on low‐quality rice may be effective in fulfilling the nutritional requirement of low‐income households.     

The product life cycle and sample representativity bias in price indexes

Official price indexes are usually calculated using matched samples of products. If products exhibit systematic price trends at different points in their life cycle then matched sample methods may introduce bias if the life cycle movement in the sample does not adequately reflect that in the population. This article explores the extent of these life cycle pricing effects and then examines the bias it can introduce in measured inflation. A large US supermarket scanner data set for six cities and six products over 12 years is used. Using hedonic methods we find that the life cycle component of price change is important across a range of products and cities. To explore the bias introduced by these movements, we use simulations that construct indexes with different sample update frequency. For indexes that are never completely resampled, we find an annual absolute bias of 0.88 and 0.59 percentage points depending upon whether we use the actual prices or prices imputed from our hedonic model. This compares with absolute biases of 0.34 and 0.10 percentage points for the corresponding cases for samples, which are re-selected annually. Thus our results provide strong support for more frequently updating index samples.     

Is money an omitted variable in the production function? Some further results

In recent years, numerous studies have emphasized the role of real balances in the production function in terms of money being useful: as an intermediate good; as liquid reserves for investment; and also serving as a link between aggregate supply and the nominal interest rate. In this paper we report new Canadian empirical evidence regarding the important role of money in the production process of aggregate manufacturing industries based on a flexible translog cost function approach. In general, our results support the hypothesis that money is an important factor in the production function and that there are potential supply side effects of a change in the interest rate.     

Portfolio selection in a lognormal securities market

Conclusion This paper, therefore, once again establishes the usefulness of the two parameter distributions in the analysis of portfolio selection and taxation. Assuming a lognormal securities market and a chance-constrained portfolio choice model, we derive the well known results of portfolio separation and the effects of taxation which were earlier obtained under more restrictive mean-variance assumptions.This paper, an earlier version of which was presented at the 8th International Symposium on Mathematical Programming, Stanford University, August 27–31, 1973, is based on a chapter of the author's Ph. D. thesis (Ahsan, 1974). The author is grateful to S. Ahmad, A. B. Atkinson, C. J. Bliss, D. W. Butterfield, A. L. Robb, T. Russell and W. M. Scarth for helpful comments.