Editorial

Citation

Moutinho, L. and Huarng, K.-H. (2007), "Editorial", Journal of Modelling in Management, Vol. 2 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2.2007.29702caa.001

Editorial

Time really flies... This is the last issue of Volume 2 of Journal Of Modelling in Management (JM2), which means we have completed two years of publication. Thanks for all the efforts of the contributors, Associate editors, publisher, reviewers and the journal administrator. The submission rate has been increasing as well as the number of JM2 downloads. A submission pattern is clearly visible in that and maybe because of the nature of the journal, we have a very large constituency, in terms of paper submissions, within the Asia-Pacific area of the world. Thank you for your interest in JM2!

In this issue, we have a multiplicity of modeling issues ranging from modeling critical success factors, restricted principal component analysis, and a meta-analysis of the technology acceptance model (TAM) to a co-movement analysis among international stock markets and information asymmetric, quality perception and market dynamics.

Tseng examined the stock price effects of cross-listings American depositary receipts in the USA by eight Taiwan companies during the period of 1996-2003. The proposed systems, including decision tree, rule base system, neural network and a hybrid method, were tested with the data from 2004 to estimate the accuracy of the stock price prediction and determine if there is any co-relation between the stock prices between both two countries. These systems were different from the conventional methodology that has been applied widely to examine stock price information.

Wankhade and Dabade intended to study market dynamics in the setting of information symmetry and quality perception. The position of high quality products in the market was a focus. In addition, an attempt was made to reveal the relationships in the markets of developed and developing nations. System dynamics was used for preliminary modelling and analysis. Simulation was carried out to access the impact of company reputation and advertising on market parameters. From using correlation analysis and analytic hierarchy approach, the policy measures to improve HQP position in the market were shown.

Singh, Garg, Deshmukh, and Kumar tried to identify and develop the structural relationship among different factors for successful implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) in this study. Questionnaire-based survey and Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach was applied and fourteen factors were identified such as top management commitment, organization culture, sound financial condition, training, integration of departments, etc. On the basis of survey results and opinion of experts from industry and academia, structural relationship model was developed through ISM approach. The results showed that the top management commitment and sound financial condition are the major drivers for implementing AMTs. Effective implementation of AMTs will improve organization performance in terms of lead time, product cost, fast delivery and product quality. For effective implementation of AMTs, management should not ignore managerial aspects such as organization culture, employees training, integration of departments, vendor development, strategy development and customer involvement.

Yousafzai, Foxall, and Pallister developed two papers (parts I and II) concerned with a meta-analysis of the TAM. Part I presents a narrative literature review of 145 papers published on the TAM as a basis for identifying gaps and providing guideline for implementation management and conduct of future research. This is a comprehensive literature review and a rigorous meta-analysis to progress towards a unified view of the TAM. The TAM originally formulated by Davis in 1986 is one of the most widely tested models of technology acceptance.

In their second paper (part II), Yousafzai, Foxall, and Pallister presented a rigorous and quantitative meta-analytic review of 569 findings from 95 TAM studies as a basis for identifying gaps and providing a guideline for implementation management and conduct of future research. The paper further investigates the potential impact of the methodological characteristics on the meta-analytic findings. Moderator-analysis is also applied using homogeneity Q-values, an analogue to ANOVA, and the weighted regression method. Their findings emphasizes that the dominant focus in empirical investigations of the TAM has been on modelling intention for its effect on self-reported usage behaviour, while the attitudinal construct has been neglected.

Principal components analysis (PCA) is a very popular multivariate methods used in various research. However, interpreting the results of such analyses can be problematic. DeSarbo, Hausman, and Kukitz introduced restricted principal components analysis (RPCA) which attempts to optimally derive latent components whose coefficients are integer constrained. This constraint results in solutions which are easily interpretable with no need for rotation. Furthermore, the proposed procedure can enhance data reduction efforts. They presented two algorithms for deriving efficient solutions for RPCA: an augmented branch and bound algorithm for sequential extraction, and a combinatorial optimization procedure for simultaneous extraction of these constrained components. The authors then contrasted the traditional PCA derived solution to those obtained from both proposed RPCA procedures with respect to a data set of psychographic variables collected from potential buyers of the Dodge Viper sports car.

As you can see, the range of analytical topics methodological issues and modeling approaches, are constantly enriching the content of JM2, posing challenges and defying assumptions. This is really what we want as the main thrust and remit of the JM2! We hope you continue to enjoy the reading.

Luiz Moutinho and Kun-Huang Huarng