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Whenever capitalism in the West appears to be dragging with unresolved problems, then quite a few people, including professional economists, begin to think that perhaps socialism is a better alternative. Conversely, in the East even a larger number of people, including economists (who are not activists), seriously believe that in view of their shortages and meagre incomes capitalism would be a better alternative.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a foundational reference and practical guidance for modelling small and poor data with incomplete information.

The definitions of four basic models of GM(1, 1), such as Even Grey Model (EGM), Original Difference Grey Model (ODGM), Even Difference Grey Model (EDGM) and Discrete Grey Model (DGM), are put forward. The properties and characteristics of different models are studied and their equivalence are proved. The suitable sequences of different models are studied by simulation and analysis with homogeneous exponential sequences, nonhomogeneous exponential increasing sequences and vibration sequences.

The main conclusions have been obtained as follows: first, the three discrete models of ODGM, EDGM and DGM are suitable for homogeneous exponential sequences or sequences which close to a homogeneous exponential sequence; and second the EGM are suitable for nonhomogeneous exponential increasing sequences and vibration sequences.

The outcome obtained in this paper can be consulted for model selection in the course of practical modelling.

This paper systematically defined the four basic forms of model GM(1, 1) and studied their properties and characteristics, especially their suitable sequences. Although significant progress has been made in this field, such a systematic study on these models and their suitable sequences is still missing as far as we know. It can provide reference and basis for people to choose the correct model in the actual modelling process.

To examine how different types of ownership, including investor-owned, employee-owned, and mixed models, affect the dynamics of participatory practices in the workplace, and the broader social effects of these differences.

Brings together literature from democratic theory and empirical research in workplace participation and employee ownership. The first step is to articulate the range of democratic practices from nondemocratic to strongly democratic. The essay then discusses the different forms that participation can take and the threshold for what can be considered democratic participation. It then considers different models of ownership and the impact of ownership type on participatory practices.

It is found that investor-owned firms cannot be considered strongly democratic and that worker cooperatives are more likely to be strongly democratic and cannot fall below the threshold of weak democracy. However, strong democracy is not necessarily a feature of worker cooperatives.

Little work has been done to consider the way the type of ownership affects the kind or degree of democratic practices that may be present in an enterprise.

To describe the best practices for complying with the increasingly large body of information returns required by the Internal Revenue Service of participants in the investment management industry and the severe penalties that apply to noncompliant taxpayers.

This technical paper describes the explosive growth of information returns and protective return filings required of investment management industry participants, based upon the author’s advising tax return preparers and taxpayers charged with filing these forms.

Each tax return filing season has demonstrated the ever-increasing and enormous waste of effort and money but no relief is in sight. The expectation of relief from the tax authorities at any level or from Congress and other legislative bodies, is remote.

This paper provides timely guidance from a practitioner in the field of tax compliance including a summary of current forms to be reviewed by tax practitioners with investment management industry clients, either on the manager or the investor side.

The purpose of this paper is to present the terms of grey forecasting models and techniques.

The definitions of basic terms about grey forecasting models and techniques are presented one by one.

The reader could know the basic explanation about the important terms about various grey forecasting models and techniques from this paper.

Many of the authors’ colleagues thought that unified definitions of key terms would be beneficial for both the readers and the authors.

It is a fundamental work to standardise all the definitions of terms for a new discipline. It is also propitious to spread and universal of grey system theory.

Retail has evolved over the past century alongside megatrends such as urbanization, consumerism and digitalization. To contribute to existing knowledge on patterns of retail form evolution, the purpose of this paper is to investigate when and how novel retail forms have evolved in the Swedish sporting goods market.

An evolutionary approach that encompasses population thinking is used to interpret the history of sporting goods retailing in Sweden from the interwar era onwards. Drawing on archival data and interviews, the focus in the historical analysis is on the evolution of retail form variation in terms of size, strategy, product range and retail channel (online/offline).

The paper suggests that evolutionary mechanisms cumulatively have changed the sports retail population from a rather homogenous set of smaller generalist stores toward a larger variety and specialization in mainly two directions: one trajectory toward small and service-focused niche specialists and the other toward high-volume sales outlets.

The paper provides a detailed empirical account of sports retail history in Sweden and an application of theoretical concepts contributing to an integrated investigation of empirical issues and theoretical positions. It concludes that being able to attain “closures” – finding ways to close off a section of the market and avoid direct competition – has historically been a crucial capability for individual retailers to thrive.

Information science has been convincingly characterised as a response to developments in information and communications technologies and as part of the gestalt of the computer. Despite this, it has had a limited understanding of information technology and has repressed or disguised its origins. Its understanding of itself and its potential for contribution to other discourses has thereby been restricted. The paper develops an understanding of information technology. The idea that the computer as a machine is concerned with the transformation of information, not material or energy, is extended to other information technologies. Technology is regarded as a radical human construction, in a position derived from Marx and mediated by economics. On these bases, an understanding of information technology as a form of knowledge concerned with the transformation of signals from one form or medium into another is proposed. Invention, innovation, and diffusion are distinguished as stages in the development of technologies. For modern information technologies, the history of copyright can provide indicators for innovation and diffusion. The mid‐ to late 19th century, in the United States and between the United States and Europe, is identified as the critical period for diffusion. An explanation for this is proposed in terms of the dynamism of the period, its hospitality to innovation, and in the United States continental expansion and developing links with Europe.

This article aims at contributing to the development of a Marxist theory of the production of knowledge, and in particular of natural sciences and techniques (NST), under capitalism. It rejects the double critique that the labor theory of value has become obsolete under modern capitalism and that Marx’s theoretical structure cannot accommodate mental production. The paper starts with two preliminary sections. First, some relevant aspects of dialectics as a tool of social research are submitted. Then, notions such as Information Society or Service Society are debunked. On this basis, the production of individual and of social knowledge is inquired into and the conditions for knowledge production to be production of (surplus) value are analyzed. Next, the question is tackled as to why and how this knowledge (and in particular NST) is functional for the interests of the capitalist class, even though in a contradictory way. Several examples are provided. Particular attention is paid to the computer and to biotechnology and genetic engineering. The most common objections against the thesis of the class determination of knowledge are dealt with. It is argued that class determination of knowledge can explain why the science and techniques developed in one society and by one class can be used in other societies and by other classes. Examples are provided of trans-class and trans-epochal elements of knowledge. Finally, the last section submits that a radically different type of NST can originate only from a radically different type of society, based on radically different production relations.

The purpose of this paper is to expose a classical Vitruvian archetype and subject it to the logic of deconstruction. The process engages two opposing camps and mindsets, and, through analysis, reaches a point that allows the reader to make assessments on how the archetype fulfills the perceived objectives of its time and how it can be assessed through a more contemporary methodology.

This study employs two methodologies in the analysis of an architectural model that became a reference point in the evolution of Western Architecture. A traditional approach similar to Ruskin’s Victorian-style analysis and criticism builds the study’s foundations. That is followed by the method of deconstructivism, challenging the traditional thought, resurfacing of the duality of every attribute assigned to the initial datum. Initially, the study brings to the proscenium the nature of this classical order as a sui generis archetype, defining the engendered properties that describe it. That is followed by an inverse process as applied by the twentieth-century deconstructivist movement.

The paper finds the dichotomy of perception of a classical archetype based upon the methods applied.

Recognition of a dichotomy of perception of a classical architectural archetype becomes overture toward a number of well-defined archetypes based on what could be considered Cartesian non-complex architectural archetypes.

This paper offers a Gestalt-based reflection on the nature of the Doric order.