The analysis of customer density,tenant placement and coupling inside a shopping centre with GIS

The spatial arrangement of tenants is currently one of the main topics in shopping centre research. This paper shows how a Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used to analyse the tenant structure. Given the recommendations in the literature, the analysis may help to improve the situation within a certain shopping centre. Therefore, we introduce the variable clumping method and kernel density estimation into shopping centre research in order to analyse retail category concentrations, customer flows and coupling in a shopping centre. Applying these techniques to a German shopping centre showed that spatial concentration can be observed within the retail categories of food, health & body and fashion and that the pass ratio declines according to the distance from the central point of the shopping centre. Also, shops in the same retail category have higher coupling than those of different categories, and unexpectedly spatially separated shops have a slightly higher coupling than non-spatially separated ones. Overall, the use of GIS improves the quality and the speed of spatially based analysis, and thus should be used more frequently in scientific shopping centre research and shopping centre management.     

Adaptation responses to increasing drought frequency

Using state contingent analysis, we discuss how and why irrigators adapt to alternative water supply signals. Focusing on the timing of water allocations, we explore inherent differences in the demand for water by two key irrigation sectors: annual and perennial producers. The analysis explores the reliability of alternative water property right bundles and how reduced allocations across time influence alternative responses by producers. Our findings are then extended to explore how management strategies could adapt to two possible future drier state types: (i) where an average reduction in water supply is experienced; and (ii) where drought becomes more frequent. The combination of these findings is subsequently used to discuss the role water reform policy plays in dealing with current and future climate scenarios.     

From dogmatic views on conservation agriculture adoption in Zambia towards adapting to context

Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a sustainable agricultural practice, yet with debatable success. Most authors assume successful adoption, only if all three principles of CA are implemented: (1) minimum or zero tillage, (2) maintenance of a permanent soil cover, and (3) integration of crop rotations. Based on this strict definition, adoption has declined or remained stagnant. Presently, not much attention has been given to context-suited adaptation possibilities, and partial adoption has not been recognized as an entry point to full adoption. Furthermore, isolated success cases have not been analysed sufficiently. By applying the QAToCA approach based on focus group discussions complemented by semi-structured qualitative expert and farmer interviews, we assessed the reasons behind positive CA adaptation and adoption trends in Zambia. Main reasons behind Zambia’s emerging success are (1) a positive institutional influence, (2) a systematic approach towards CA promotion – encouraging a stepwise adaptation and adoption, and (3) mobilization of strong marketing dynamics around CA. These findings could help to eventually adjust or redesign CA promotion activities. We argue for a careful shift from the ‘dogmatic view’ on adoption of CA as a packaged technology, towards adapting its principles to the small-scale farming context of SSA.     

Measuring the natural rate of interest: A note on transitory shocks

We present evidence that the natural rate of interest is buffeted by both permanent and transitory shocks. We establish this result by estimating a benchmark model with Bayesian methods and loose priors on the unobserved drivers of the natural rate. When subject to transitory shocks, the median estimate for the US economy is more procyclical, displays a less marked secular decline, and is therefore higher following the Great Recession than most estimates in the literature.     

Having a share in creating a peaceful world: teaching students to become tolerant

The occurrence of terrible incidents and situations all over the world where people are dying or suffering, due to political, economic, or cultural reasons have a great impact not only on students but on all human beings. It is therefore feasible for educators to take an active role to overcome or at least to diminish the negative effects of the situations mentioned above by including human rights education in their curriculum. For these reasons, the aim of this study is to identify the perceptions of students in a multicultural setting through the content topic of human rights to meet the language objectives of the course and also to raise tolerance awareness. The researchers obtained data through interviews, paragraphs, and the teacher’s diary based on observations and content analysis is used to analyse the qualitative data while triangulation research method is used to support the validity of the results. Results of the current study demonstrate that the course had various positive effects on the students and the objectives were met concerning language together by raising more awareness towards tolerance through the content topic of human rights.

     

(Not Finding a) Sequential Order Bias in Elite Level Gymnastics

Sequential order bias is often used to refer to timing biases in sequential order judging. However, there are two distinct biases within this structure: overall order bias, a bias throughout the event, and a sequential order bias, a judgment biased by the immediately preceding performance. I independently test these forms of bias using uniquely suitable data from elite level gymnastics. After modeling overall order bias, I find evidence that this bias exists, as scores escalate throughout the competition. However, I find no evidence of a sequential order bias; scores are independent of the immediately preceding performer.     

The Economic Impact and Civic Pride Effects of Sports Teams and Mega‐Events: Do The Public and the Professionals Agree?

Often sports leagues, organising committees, and team owners justify the use of public funds to build sports stadiums by the perceived economic impacts and civic pride generated by the teams or mega‐events. Since the 1980s many economic studies have examined the economic impact and civic pride created by professional sports teams. Most of the economic literature finds sports teams or mega‐events have little or no economic impact, but there are mixed findings on the magnitude of civic pride. Overall, most of the economic literature suggests that the benefits created by sports teams or events do not outweigh the cost of public subsidies provided. We conduct a survey of public opinion on US residents’ perceptions of economic impacts and civic pride benefits from mega‐events such as the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics. Our study asks the question: Do residents believe that mega‐events and sports teams generate positive economic impacts and civic pride or not? We find that, like economists, the public doubts that public funding of mega‐events is a good idea.     

How group and perceiver characteristics affect collective blame following counterproductive work behavior

Two experimental studies, based on a model using a novel integration of theories, provide evidence that collective blame, the assignment of blame to members of a group besides the member(s) who directly caused a misdeed, in the aftermath of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is higher when a group of coworkers is perceived as a single entity. Further, the studies consistently show that this relationship is mediated by inferences about both indirect causality and common blameworthy traits among group members. These findings extend prior research, which has not considered mediation in this relationship by dual inferences. Additionally, perceivers’ implicit theories about people's character were found to moderate the inferences they favor, with inferences about indirect causality versus common traits favored by perceivers with implicit theories that people's character is malleable versus fixed, respectively. These findings extend prior research by empirically supporting the notion that the nature of perceivers’ implicit theories about people's character is related to why they perceive a group to be a single entity. The findings, future directions and implications of improved understanding of the assignment of collective blame following CWB are discussed.     

An Analysis of Applicability using Quality Metrics for Ontologies on Ontology Design Patterns

Ontology design patterns (ODPs) provide best-practice solutions for common or recurring ontology design problems. This work focuses on content ODPs, which form small ontologies themselves and thus can be subject to ontology quality metrics in general. We investigate the use of such metrics for content ODP evaluation in terms of metrics applicability and validity. The quality metrics used for this investigation are taken from existing work in the area of ontology quality evaluation. We discuss the general applicability to content ODP of each metric considering its definition, ODP characteristics, and the defined goals of ODPs. The research process presented in this paper has two phases. In the first phase, we conducted a literature research in the area of metrics for assessing ontology quality. The second phase consisted of a two-step evaluation of the ontology metrics identified in the literature analysis. During the first step, we investigated whether the metrics are appropriate to differentiate between content ODPs of different quality. Metrics that proved to be applicable were calculated for a random set of 14 content ODPs. In the second step, a controlled experiment, the quality indicated by the metric value was contrasted with the perception of ontology engineers; that is, do ‘measured quality’ and ‘perceived quality’ match?. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global talent management and global talent challenges: Strategic opportunities for IHRM

The need for multinational firms to be as competitive in the global marketplace as possible has increased dramatically over the past twenty years. For international human resource management this has meant many strategic opportunities to international human resource management. An excellent example of such an opportunity is that which exists regarding the management of talent. This opportunity began to develop in the late 1990s with the advent of the challenge of “global talent management.” During the past few years this opportunity has expanded to include challenges dealing with talent shortages, talent surpluses, locating and relocating talent, and compensation levels of talent. Together, these conditions are all “global talent challenges”. In this article we describe these several global talent challenges and the strategic opportunities they present to firms and propose the implications of these for firms and for the field of international human resource management.