Search results

A large number of correlation analysis studies of UK data have suggested that there is a weak relationship between student input quality (for example, “A” level performance) and degree performance. This paper re‐examines this relationship using a different statistical method, namely, a multinomial logit analysis. Unlike the earlier studies, we find strong explanatory variables for degree performance. For example, it is found that an increase of one in average “A” points, other things being equal, increases the probability of a first or upper second‐class grade (a “good degree”) by 5.8 per cent, while student dissatisfaction with a course will reduce this probability by 15 per cent. Potential students should also note that taking subjects like geography and history, other things being equal, increases the probability of a “good degree”, while taking, for example, law, reduces it.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a European option using the fractional version of the Black-Scholes model.

In this paper, the authors employ the block-pulse operational matrix algorithm to approximate the solution of the fractional Black-Scholes equation with the initial condition for a European option pricing problem.

The fractional derivative will be described in the Caputo sense in this paper. The authors show the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm through some numerical examples.

This is the first paper that considers an alternative algorithm for pricing a European option using the fractional Black-Scholes model.

Introduces the relationship marketing paradigm as a means of analysing the purchaser‐provider relationship within the NHS internal market. This focus is justified in the context of the limitations of orthodox economic analysis. The research evidence is based upon a national survey of all NHS trust hospitals in England. The survey consisted of key questions relating to the process of relationship building strategies employed by NHS hospital trusts. In particular, emphasis was given to non‐price competitive behaviour, i.e. the extent to which health care contracts were augmented or customised by providers. An empirical analysis is presented, identifying those factors driving such non‐price competitive behaviour, based upon a LOGIT model. The results suggest the hypotheses tested are consistent with the evidence from our survey. Finally, the model is used to make some tentative predictions regarding the future of the purchaser‐provider relationship within the reformed NHS.

While popular genre fictions like detective novels are often centred around formulaic plots and stereotypical characters, they also undergo several exciting changes when adapted in a diverse array of cultural and linguistic contexts. My chapter examines the first female detective of a Bangla crime writing series, Detective (Goyenda) Krishna as a figure that challenges patriarchal stereotypes related to violent women and dismantles the illusory neatness of binaries associated with ‘good’ and ‘bad’ femininity. The gun-toting, vengeance-seeking literary detective is also examined as mediating shifts and transitions in gendered practices and norms in Bengal – its socio-political as well as literary contexts – as it negotiated ideas of decoloniality from the first decade of the twentieth century and emerged as part of a new, partitioned nation in 1947. She is seen as a creative response to the changes related to gender that had been gradually taking shape in colonised Bengal and as articulating radically re-imagined possibilities and opportunities related to female subjectivities in a newly decolonised nation.

The reformers of the UK higher education system hoped that radical reform would simultaneously result in: improvements in the quality of education provided, increases in cost efficiency and a significant expansion in student numbers. This paper takes a close look at the reforms by undertaking both a time‐series and a cross‐section econometric analysis of the data to examine the relationships between quality, quantity and efficiency. Claims that the evidence shows that there have been genuine efficiency improvements and that these can be explained by the mechanics of the principal‐agent relationship which exists between the taxpayer and the higher education sector. However, it is also found that educational quality is costly, for example it is likely to cost the taxpayer £1,200 per academic per year to gain one percentage point in the production of first‐class graduates.

This study aims to estimate total factor productivity (TFP) growth for the post-2008 period for selected industries in the manufacturing sector at NIC 3-digit. Total factor productivity growth (TFPG) estimates are based on the theoretical framework provided by studies such Hall (1988), Abraham et al. (2009) and Crepon et al. (2005) that incorporate market imperfection in labour and product market, thereby modifying the traditional TFP estimation as Solow Residual.

Based on the theoretical model that incorporates market imperfections in labour as well as product market in modifying the TFP estimates using the Levinsohn–Petrin framework of empirical estimation, the authors have calculated industry wise TFPG for 62 industries at NIC 3-digit level.

The study finds three distinct trends: first, there are considerable industrial disparities in productivity growth in terms of TFP. The estimates have been found to be higher than the conventional Solow Residual for most industries, indicating the role played by market imperfections in affecting the conventional measure of productivity growth. Second, estimates of bargaining power are found to be lower than those compared to the earlier estimates in Maiti (2013) for the Indian organised manufacturing case for 1998-2005. This observation is commensurate with the observation in recent years of a falling share in labour wage in total output in organised manufacturing sector. Finally, the study also found a statistically significant contribution of greater mechanisation on TFPG while an adverse effect of the rising dependence of organised manufacturing on contractual labour.

The role of market imperfections in measuring TFPG has been undertaken, and it has been found to be an important factor, as the estimated measures vary from the conventional measures of TFPG. Moreover, the study has considered a very recent period from 2008-2015 in estimating TFPG, as well as analysing the factors behind the trends in TFPG at industrial level.

This study aims to create a more humane and responsible workplace, individuals’ gratitude and meaningfulness seem of utmost importance. This study is an effort to understand the role of gratitude intent of potential managers.

This study examines the psychological characteristic of business students in India. The researchers surveyed 333 Indian students as future managers. The collected data has been analysed with the Smart PLS 3 version to assess the formative-reflective scale by comparing model fit, measurement model and structural modelling.

The results establish that gratitude significantly affects the life satisfaction of future managers. Findings also show that materialism is negatively related to life satisfaction and meaningfulness. The importance–performance map analysis finding suggests that meaningfulness in life is a potential indicator of life satisfaction for the population studied.

Due to the limited research available on the psychological underpinnings in the Indian context, there is a massive value in examining how materialism and gratitude concurrently and distinctively predict meaning in life and the life satisfaction of future managers. This paper gives a formative explanation of the model consisted gratitude, materialism and meaningfulness in life on the life satisfaction of future managers. This study establishes the importance of meaningfulness of life in attaining life satisfaction for young managers.

Three-dimensional digital design and manufacturing technology are changing the current manufacturing pattern and have become the core of enterprise competition. However, the research and application of three-dimensional digital technology in the present phase have a strong bias toward the design of three-dimensional model and focus little on process planning. It restricts the development of manufacturing industry. Therefore, this paper aims to present a design scheme of three-dimensional digital process planning.

A three-dimensional digital process design method is developed by combining model-based definition technology and knowledge engineering technology. Model-based definition technology is used to display the process information. And knowledge engineering technology is used for process decision; meanwhile, ontology technology is introduced to describe process knowledge. And taking shaft part as an example, this paper establishes the general ontology of manufacturing process and the special ontology of shaft. This research provides an available method for the three-dimensional digital process planning.

Traditional process planning mainly is based on two-dimensional engineering drawing, which leads to the low efficiency and quality of process planning. Moreover, it cannot achieve effective mining and management of knowledge. Thus, applying an effective knowledge management technology into a three-dimensional process system is necessary.

This paper contributes to an available method for three-dimensional digital process planning.

The introduction of model-based definition technology makes process information display in three-dimensional environment. And ontology technology achieves sematic reference and efficient management of process knowledge.

This research paper reports a novel genetic algorithm (GA)‐based approach for reconfiguration of radial distribution networks for real loss minimization and power quality improvement.

A fuzzy controlled GA has been used for efficient reconfiguration of radial distribution systems for loss minimization and power quality improvement. The special features of the proposed algorithm are: an improved chromosome coding/decoding for network representation so as to preserve the radial property without islanding any load after reconfiguration and an efficient convergence characteristics attributed to fuzzy controlled mutation.

The proposed network reconfiguration algorithm is very much effective in arriving at the global optimal solution (minimum loss network structure) because of efficient search of the solution space. Also, no invalid chromosomes are generated in the genetic evolution because of appropriate coding/decoding. The algorithm is found to be very much suitable for real time implementations.

This research paper provides the power distribution engineers with a computationally efficient approach for optimal operation of distribution systems.

The algorithm proposed in this paper is computationally much faster compared to most of the present day mathematical programming approaches for distribution system operation. This makes it very much attractive for online implementations in any radial distribution network.

This paper has proposed a novel chromosome coding/decoding technique for radial distribution system and a fuzzy logic‐based mutation probability controller for efficient search of global solution space to be used in GA‐based optimal operation of radial distribution systems.

This study aims to propose a novel way to explore the narrative structure of advertisements, a nascent area of research, through the protagonist’s emotional arc progression.

The multi-methods approach is used. In Study 1, the authors explore the basic universal emotional arcs through the analysis of narrative advertisements from six key economies. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors experimentally test hypotheses concerning the narrative structure and viewers’ attitudes toward the narrative using representative samples (317 and 193 ads, respectively).

The authors identify five broad emotional arcs of the protagonist in audiovisual advertisements. Different emotional arcs are found to induce different attitudes in the audience. Narratives ending in a positive mode and the narrative arcs with higher emotional shifts are more favorably evaluated by the audience.

The present study is limited to textual stimuli tested in a US population and does not consider protagonist characteristic portrayal.

Understanding consumer preferences for different emotional arcs can help practitioners to develop more clutter-breaking and relevant advertisements.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the narrative structure theory in the context of advertisements using a positivist approach.