The impact of purchasing strategy-structure (mis)fit on purchasing cost and innovation performance

The organizational design literature strongly supports the notion of “structure follows strategy”, and suggests that a misfit between the two has a negative effect on performance. Building on this line of argument, we examine to what extent the (mis)fit between purchasing strategy and purchasing structure impacts purchasing performance. We focus on cost and innovation purchase category strategies, and examine how the deviation from an ideal purchasing structure defined along three dimensions (centralization, formalization, and cross-functionality) impacts purchasing performance. Analysing data collected from 469 firms in ten countries, we demonstrate that a strategy-structure misfit negatively impacts purchasing performance in both cost and innovation strategies. We also find that purchasing proficiency is a mediator in this relationship between misfit and performance. Our findings aid managerial decision making by empirically validating the necessity of having the right purchasing structure for successfully executing different purchasing strategies.     

Geodemographic and socioeconomic characterization of the retail attraction of leading hypermarket chains in Spain

This paper aims at examining the impact on demand of the competitive positioning strategies developed by the leading hypermarket chains in Spain. Specifically, the purpose is to carry out a geodemographic and socieconomic characterization of the potential consumers of each chain. As retail attraction has traditionally been divided into three components, distance, mass and image, a gravitational model is proposed which distinguishes them and facilitates the evaluation of existing differences across any a priori segmentation base. The empirical test identifies significant geodemographic differences in the retail attraction of hypermarket chains. Chains seem to target the whole market by developing an image balanced against the advantages and disadvantages derived from the spatial coverage strategy. Social class is not as good an indicator of hypermarket choice as expected, although some interesting patterns have been detected.     

Moldflow在盒盖翘曲变形优化设计中的应用

本文以盒盖为例,借助模流分析软件Moldflow,对盒盖进行翘曲变形分析,得出产生翘曲变形主要是由取向不均和收缩不均引起的,通过对不同方案浇口位置和数量的比较,优化浇口位置,改善材料熔体的流动方向取向,调整保压曲线,有效地减少翘曲变形,达到了预期地变形目标值,为模具开发提供了依据。     

Influence measures on profile analysis with elliptical data through Frèchet’s metric

In this paper, from Frèchet’s metric, diagnostic tools are constructed for the detection of influential observations in Profile Analysis with elliptically distributed random errors . This distributional hypothesis allows the application of the proposed diagnostics to a wide variety of random experiences, not only for data from a multivariate normal distribution but also from other symmetric distributions, commonly used in studies of several sciences. The diagnostics are based on Frèchet’s distance between the distributions of the basic statistics in Profile Analysis, in the postulated model and in the perturbed model obtained by deleting an observation from the sample data. This metric is highly useful since it enables the analysis of the influence on the point estimation and the estimation error. Applications on two data sets are provided.     

A detailed behavioral analysis on consumer and customer changing behavior with respect to social networking sites

The main purpose of the study is to analyze the changing behavior of the customers on various products by conducting a customer review. The analysis is performed in three major steps such as, calculating customer review quality, calculating behavior quality of customer and review comparison. Behavioral analysis is a kind of science which helps to study and understand the behavior of human beings. It studies the factors that influence the behavior of living beings and non-living beings on a larger aspect. A special emphasis is placed on understanding, describing, predicting and changing behavior. Understanding the behavior of individuals is a tedious job to be performed and hence to evaluate the final result, the study used Chi-Square Method. As a tool, the paper employs customer reviews to gather primary and secondary data. These reviews inform, educate and explain the benefits of using customer reviews in gathering data. It is one of the best and easiest methods to formulate the score of comparison between customer's profile and their review. Findings of the study proved that depending on the customer's profile, the quality of the product varied. Furthermore, high rates of efficiency and accuracy is observed in gathering information on the products via customer's profile and review. Study authenticates an inclusive approach to explain factors manipulating consumer awareness, observation and sensitivity on product value. A depth analysis was carried out to identify the purchase decision, brand behavior, price influence the buying behavior and opinion of the customers. However, the factors such as high quality, social media networking sites and customer's profiles had a greater impact on buying behavior of the customers.     

Vocational skills in the accounting professional profile: the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) employers' opinion

The increasingly dynamic environment in which accountants work has necessitated a reorientation of accounting education. In some countries this issue has raised great interest amongst accounting educators and practitioners. The ongoing debate has already resulted in the publication of several statements and research papers that have raised the question of the relevance of the role of vocational skills in accounting education. Examples of these vocational skills are communication skills, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills. This paper reports on the importance that the employers of management accountants gave to a specified set of vocational skills and capabilities and the level of ability of these skills exhibited by students. In order to prioritize future developments an integrated analysis of the two attributes, importance and exhibited level, is enabled by the use of strategic mapping. The results of this study suggest that the employers perceive deficiencies in several capabilities that they have identified as being quite important. These deficiencies exist, in the employers' opinion, both prior to recruitment and on professional qualification. The research also indicates that, in the opinion of these employers, the development of these skills should be a central concern for universities and professional bodies. The employers also indicated that vocational skills should be attained in an integrated way.     

Identifying College Students Likely to Participate in a Travel Abroad Volunteer Project

Foreign travel provides excellent opportunities for college students to broaden their global mindset. While empirical research focusing on variables that influence student participation in study abroad programs are available, there is a paucity of research that focuses on travel abroad programs relating to participating in volunteer projects. Using a sample of 193 undergraduate business students, this study attempts to develop profiles of students that are “not likely,” “maybe,” and “most likely” to participate in a travel abroad volunteer project. Those who were “mostly likely” to participate had traveled abroad before, demonstrated high levels of self-congruity and diversity seeking, and stated financial costs to be less of a constraint in participating in such a project. Discussion of findings and direction for future research is also provided.     

Statistical inference of partially linear varying coefficient spatial autoregressive models

This paper proposes a semiparametric partially linear varying coefficient spatial autoregressive model, which is a generalization of standard spatial autoregressive model and partially linear spatial autoregressive model. To estimate the unknown spatial lag parameter, constant coefficients and coefficient functions, a profile quasi-maximum likelihood approach based on the local-linear method is introduced. To test the existence of the spatial effects, a generalized likelihood ratio test statistic is proposed, and a residual-based bootstrap procedure is used to derive the p-value of the test. Some simulations are conducted to examine the performance of our proposed procedures and the results are satisfactory. Furthermore, a real-world example is given to demonstrate the application of the proposed procedures.     

SERVQUAL and PAT

Abstract

Two approaches to measuring the quality of restaurant services are compared, both of which employ the expectancy-discon-firmation paradigm. A SERVQUAL style of questionnaire provided quality measures, which were used to differentiate foodservice establishments, but the data showed several statistical weaknesses, and respondents had trouble contextualizing the questions. Profile Accumulation Technique (PAT) was similarly able to distinguish between different restaurants, and the data had greater internal validity. However this methodology is based upon different assumptions from those underlying SERVQUAL, and there are also implications of cost and expertise. The paper concludes that instruments derived from SERVQUAL cannot claim to apply the theoretical basis of the expectancy- disconfirmation paradigm, whereas PAT is capable of assessing quality according to the paradigm. However, at present it cannot always be assumed that restaurant customers use the expectancy disconfirmation mechanism for evaluating all meal experiences. The advantages and disadvantages of both methods are discussed and implications for further research are identified.     

半参数变系数空间滞后模型的截面极大似然估计

在线性参数空间滞后模型中,解释变量的系数一般假设为固定常数,本文首先放松了这种假设,将解释变量的系数设定为某一变量的未知函数,提出一类全新的半参数变系数空间滞后模型;其次导出了该模型的截面极大似然估计,并证明了该估计的一致性;最后用蒙特卡洛数值模拟方法考察了该估计在小样本条件下的性质,数值模拟结果显示我们提出的估计方法在小样本条件下依然有优良的表现。