Beyond first impressions: The effects of repeated exposure on consumer liking of visually complex and simple product designs

This article presents an experiment examining the effects of stimulus complexity on consumers' aesthetic preferences. The results suggest that preferences for visually complex product designs tend to increase with repeated exposure, while preferences for visually simple product designs tend to decrease with repeated exposure. In addition, the results suggest thatperceived complexity partially mediates the exposure-preference relationship. The authors discuss implications of these findings for market researchers conducting aesthetic product design concept tests, as well as more basic research on the affective impact of repeated exposure. Dena Cox is an associate professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Houston. She publishes research primarily on aspects of consumer behavior and promotion effects and marketing research. She has published her research in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of Retailing. Anthony D. Cox is an associate professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University. His research focus is on forecasting demand and consumer behavior and advertising effects. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, and theJournal of Consumer Research.     

Defining personalized concepts for XBRL using iPAD‐drawn fuzzy sets

An efficient and effective analysis of business data requires a better understanding of what the data represents, and to what degree. A human‐like way of accomplishing that without being too detailed yet learning more about data content is to summarize and map the data into concepts familiar to a person performing analysis. Processes of summarization help identify the most essential facts that are embedded in the data. All this is of significant importance for analysis of large amounts of business data required to make good and sound financial decisions. There are two aspects enabling more comprehensive yet easier processing of data: a standardized representation format of financial data; and a human‐friendly way of defining concepts and using them for building personalized models representing processing data. The first of the aspects has been addressed by the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)—a standardized format of defining, representing and exchanging corporate and financial information. The second aspect is related to providing individuals with the ability to gain understanding of data content via determining a degree of truth of statements summarizing data based on their own perception of concepts they are looking for. In this paper, we introduce a tablet application—Tablet‐based input of Fuzzy Sets (TiFS)—and demonstrate its usefulness for entering personalized definitions of concepts and terms that enable a quick analysis of financial data. Such analysis means utilization of soft queries and operations of aggregation that extract and summarize the data and present it in a form familiar to analysts. The application allows for defining concepts and terms with ‘finger‐made’ drawings representing a person's perception of concepts. Further, these definitions are used to build summarization statements for exploring XBRL data. They are equipped with ‘drawn’ definitions of linguistic terms (e.g. LARGE, SMALL, FAST) and linguistic quantifiers (e.g. ALL, MOSTLY), and enable summarization of data content from the perspective of a user's interests. The ‘drawn’ linguistic terms and quantifiers represent membership functions of fuzzy sets. Utilization of fuzzy sets allows for performing operations of data summarization in a human‐like way. The application of TiFS illustrates ease of inputting personalized definitions of concepts and their influence on the interpretation of data. This introduces aspects of personalization and adaptation of artificial intelligence systems to perceptions and views of individuals. The proposed application is used to perform a basic analysis of an XBRL document.     

Under the sway of a mobile device during an in‐store shopping experience

Mobile device technology is transforming the retail shopping experience. Today's consumers are mobile dependent, preferring to consult with their phone, instead of using the salesperson, while shopping at the retail store. In the absence of literature investigating how the salesperson might sell to this omni‐channel, mobile‐connected consumer, this paper proposes a conceptual model and tests its proposed linkages. The empirically tested model presents a dyadic view of the omni‐channel consumer and the salesperson. Uniquely contributing to the omni‐channel and marketing literature, samples from an emerging economy (India) and developed (United States) economy represent the contexts. Specifically, the research examines the salesperson's role in selling to a mobile‐dependent consumer who uses mobile technology to search for information during the sales meeting. Findings show that adaptive selling can affect purchase intention and customer predisposition to comply with salesperson input. Results also reveal how perceived control, mobile dependence, and customer predisposition to comply with mobile device input affect purchase intention. Managerial and research implications specifically appropriate for the omni‐consumer retail setting are offered.     

Soft Computing Techniques for Querying XBRL Data

Availability of business data is an important aspect of effective financial activities. An easy access to financial information has immense influence on actions and decisions regarding investing, trade and operations of companies and firms. The proposed standard – eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) – provides a means to create a uniform framework for representing corporate and financial information. XBRL defines an easily interpretable, machine-readable and XML-based data format. Its flexibility allows for representing business data using different languages, as well as following different regulation standards. One of important benefits of XBRL is application of XML-based tools and systems that enable easy preparation, processing and validation of corporate data. It is also possible to use XML-based storage and query systems. In this paper we propose and describe a concept of soft queries. They provide the users with a human-friendly interface for interacting with XBRL data. These queries are equipped with linguistic terms (such as large, medium, small) and linguistic qualifiers (all, mostly). Such queries are able to provide the users with results similar to the results obtained when they analyse data themselves. Linguistic terms and qualifiers are represented as fuzzy sets. Fuzzy-based operations and aggregation operators allow for mimicking a human-like processing of data. The proposed approach is illustrated with queries executed on an XBRL document. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Training at IBM's human resource service center: linking people,technology, and HR processes

IBM's Human Resource Service Center (HRSC) delivers centralized human resource operational support to over 500,000 IBM employees and retirees (including spouses and dependents). Its success is attributed to a skilled workforce focused on technology and end‐to‐end HR program support. Technology allows the Center to handle high volumes of customer requests while offering self‐service options and tiered support. Training is key to delivering quality service center support. This article describes the HRSC's methods to train customer service representatives and program specialists as well as the training challenges. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

新疆新型城镇化对农村居民消费结构的影响*——基于LA-AIDS拓展模型的实证分析

［目的］从人口、经济、生态、社会城镇化等4个方面选取30个指标研究其对消费结构的影响,为政府在优化产业结构,促进消费结构优化升级方面的政策性引导提供理论依据。［方法］文章基于1994—2016年时间序列数据,利用熵值法对4类城镇化的综合评价指数进行测算,并建立LA-AIDS拓展模型,实证分析4类城镇化对新疆农村居民消费结构的影响作用。［结果］人口城镇化对居住、文教娱乐消费有显著的抑制作用,对食品、家庭设备及服务和医疗保健消费有显著的促进作用; 经济城镇化对医疗保健消费具有显著的正向效应; 生态城镇化对家庭设备消费具有显著的抑制作用,对交通通信、医疗保健消费具有显著的正向作用; 社会城镇化显著促进衣着和家庭设备及用品消费。［结论］不同类型的城镇化对消费结构的影响具有差异性,新疆农村居民的消费类型逐步从生存型趋向于发展型与享受型消费。     

A game-theoretic approach to decision making under uncertainty

We discuss the problem of decision making under uncertainty. Here an action choice must be made without knowing the value of all relevant variables. The importance of decision attitude, i.e. optimistic/pessimistic, is emphasized and a unified approach for evaluating alternatives under different attitudes is discussed. We show the connection between decision making under uncertainty and competitive decision making—game theory. We then draw upon a key concept used in game theory, the association of a selection probability with each alternative rather then a decisive selection of an alternative, and apply this idea to decision making under uncertainty. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analyzing the Robustness of Decision Strategies in Multiagent Decision Making

We consider a multiagent decision making problem where an agent, being able to estimate the preferences of other agents, defines its own in such a way that, after an aggregation process, its most desired alternative receives the highest group support. In previous work, this informed agent defined its preferences as the solution of a non-linear optimization problem. In this competitive scenario, and focusing on this agent, we analyze the amount of imprecision in the estimates that can be tolerated while still making its most preferred alternative the most supported one. We empirically show that, even when considering just the “harmful” errors in the estimates, the informed agent is able to force the group decision towards its interest.     

The Introduction of a Non-Traditional and Aggressive Approach to Banking: The Risks of Hubris

This study integrates institutional theory and social cognitive theory to describe how peripheral organizations can accidentally bring about radical change even in highly institutionalized and change-resistant fields. The empirical context is the field of banking in Ireland (1995–2001), where a peripheral bank triggered a shift away from traditionally conservative and risk-averse banking values toward aggressive values of entrepreneurial risk taking. The introduction of a new approach to banking was attributed to three factors: (1) a benevolent environment, which made this innovation feasible and timely, (2) the state of the field, which had gaps that could be addressed through specialization, and (3) prior successes, which created hubris in the senior managers, thereby increasing the pace and scope of adoption of this approach. Eventually, what started as a specialized and entrepreneurial approach led to the spread of a risky approach to banking across the entire field. The study highlights the risks of hubris, in that media praise and early successes can increase the pace of adoption of innovations which offer short-term gains but are detrimental in the long term.