Embedded industrial production systems: Lessons from waste management in zinc production

To meet the sustainability challenge private companies must implement corporate strategies and adopt novel technologies. The technical and social embeddedness of industrial production systems, however, complicates these systems' transition towards sustainability. In the paper, mechanisms and conditions are reported for the development and implementation of waste management options in embedded industrial production systems. The focus is on the Dutch zinc production industry, which had to deal with a major waste problem; the generation of jarosite. The industry's options were to increase the jarosite waste storage capacity, to develop a jarosite treatment process or to switch to a zinc-ore of low-iron content whereby no jarosite waste would be generated anymore. Required conditions appeared to be a combination of technological capability and technical embedding and favourable economics. Case study research, however, revealed that adequate stakeholder management is crucial to address social pressure exerted and to obtain external acceptance for any transition strategy. Whilst appropriate, internal technological capabilities are important, effective interactions with and enrolment of various firm-external actors are crucial. In the case of zinc, access to the heterogeneous external actor network was critical for the development of the jarosite treatment solution direction. In conclusion, both the technical, organizational and social embedding of new technologies are crucial for successful implementation.     

Two–step sequential sampling

Choosing the sample size in advance is a familiar problem: often, additional observations appear to be desirable. The final sample size then becomes a random variable, which has rather serious consequences.
Two such sample extension situations will be considered here. In the first situation, the observed sample variance determines whether or not to double the original sample size. In the second situation, the variances observed in two independent samples are compared; their ratio determines the number of additional observations.     

User producer interaction in context

User producer interaction (UPI) increases chances for successful innovations. It is not always clear, however, what type of interaction is necessary in a particular context. This article identifies seven different types of UPI: constructing linkages, broadening, characterizing users, upstream involvement, first user enrollment, feedback, and downstream innovation. Specific contextual dimensions from which these UPI types derive relevance are discussed. The technological dimension of this context is conceptualized based on a distinction between types of technologies that differ in the degree to which they are customizable to user demands. Four case studies show that technological characteristics indeed matter for UPI, as do the heterogeneity of users and the phase of technology development.     

Response style behavior: question format dependent or personal style?

In survey research, acquiescence response style/set (ARS) and extreme response style/set (ERS) may distort the measurement of attitudes. How response bias is evoked is still subject of research. A key question is whether it may be evoked by external factors (e.g. test conditions or fatigue) or whether it could be the result of internal factors (e.g. personality or social characteristics). In the first part of this study we explore whether scale length—the manipulated test condition—influences the occurrence of ERS and/or ARS, by varying scale length from 5 till 11 categories. In pursuit of this we apply a latent class factor model that allows for diagnosing and correcting for ERS and ARS simultaneously. Results show that ERS occurs regardless of scale length. Furthermore, we find only weak evidence of ARS. In a second step we check whether ERS might reflect an internal personal style by (a) linking it to external measures of ERS, and by (b) correlating it with a personality profile and socio-demographic characteristics. Results show that ERS is reasonably stable over questionnaires and that it is associated with the selected personality profile and age.     

Repeated audit controls

An important task of auditors is to check whether recorded values are correct. From the number (or total) of the errors found in a sample, upper confidence limits for the fraction (or total) of the errors in the population are calculated by standard methods.
Even auditors are human, however, and may make mistakes: errors may remain unnoticed. As administrative rules and regulations are becoming more and more complicated, this kind of auditors' mistakes tends to occur more frequently. Hence, there is an increasing need to check the auditing process itself. This can be achieved by checking a subsample of audited values a second time, now by an error-free supervisor.
This paper investigates the consequences of the (possible) occurrence of errors in this subsample. A simple and analytically attractive model is presented for the number of errors found in this double inspection scheme. Maximum likelihood estimators are derived for the population fraction of errors and the probability of an error remaining unnoticed. Based on that, an exact upper confidence limit for the population fraction of errors is calculated, treating the probability of an unnoticed error as a nuisance parameter. Our method was originally developed during a recent Dutch case study: in a subsample of already audited values one additional error was found by the supervisor. It is shown that, as a consequence, the upper confidence limit is increased very sizeably.     

Demand articulation in intermediary organisations: The case of orphan drugs in the Netherlands

Several aspects of a technology are uncertain when it is in its emerging phase, e.g. the demand for a technology. Demand articulation processes are regarded as important, but till now it is often treated as a black box. We present a conceptual framework for the analysis of demand articulation processes inside intermediary organisations, and in interaction with other stakeholders. The empirical basis of this framework is provided by a case study involving an event history analysis, in which the occurrence and the contents of demands are followed over time. We studied the processes within the ‘Dutch Steering Committee Orphan Drugs’, an intermediary organisation that supports new and emerging technologies in the context of orphan drugs. Our results show that due to the activity of the intermediary organisation demand articulation occurred, that interactions exist between the demands and the organisation's underlying values, and that in interaction with other actors a debate on the reimbursement of new drugs is settled. The major contribution of this paper lies in the design of a framework for studying demand articulation processes in intermediary organisations and the resulting impacts on the development of emerging technologies. In addition, the paper provides insights in the possibilities to reinforce the role of the intermediary organisation studied.     

Characterizing systems of distributions by quantile measures

Modelling an empirical distribution by means of a simple theoretical distribution is an interesting issue in applied statistics. A reasonable first step in this modelling process is to demand that measures for location, dispersion, skewness and kurtosis for the two distributions coincide. Up to now, the four measures used hereby were based on moments.
In this paper measures are considered which are based on quantiles. Of course, the four values of these quantile measures do not uniquely determine the modelling distribution. They do, however, within specific systems of distributions, like Pearson's or Johnson's; they share this property with the four moment-based measures.
This opens the possibility of modelling an empirical distribution—within a specific system—by means of quantile measures. Since moment-based measures are sensitive to outliers, this approach may lead to a better fit. Further, tests of fit—e.g. a test for normality—may be constructed based on quantile measures. In view of the robustness property, these tests may achieve higher power than the classical moment-based tests.
For both applications the limiting joint distribution of quantile measures will be needed; they are derived here as well.     

Estimation of linear models with nequal restrictions

Inequality constrained regression involves the notion of a truncated parameter space, which was studied extensively by Moors (1985). His general results are extended here and applied to linear models. Using the invariance principle, for every observation x a set V_x is defined with the property that estimators taking values in V_x (with positive probability) are inadmissible. One of the main conclusions is that the usual estimators in inequality constrained regression are inadmissible; a method to obtain better estimators is indicated.     

Exploring the effect of a middle response category on response style in attitude measurement

In this research we focus on the link between response style behaviour in answering rating data such as Likert scales and the number of response categories that is offered. In a split-ballot experiment two versions of a questionnaire were randomly administered. The questionnaires only differed in the number of response categories, i.e. 5 vs. 6 categories. In both samples a latent-class confirmatory factor analysis revealed an extreme response style factor. The 6-response categories version, however, revealed the more consistent set of effects. As far as the content latent-class factors, i.e. familistic values and ethnocentrism, are concerned, results were fairly similar. However, a somewhat deviant pattern regarding the familistic values items in the 6-response categories version suggested that this set of items is less homogeneous than the set of ethnocentric items. The effect of gender, age and education was also tested and revealed similarities as well as differences between the two samples.