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The software development team reviews the testing phase to assess if the reliability growth of software is as per plan and requirement and gives suggestions for improvement. The objective of this study is to determine the optimal review time such that there is enough time to make judgments about changes required before the scheduled release.

Testing utilizes majority of time and resources, assures reliability and plays a critical role in release and warranty decision-making reviews necessary. A very early review during testing may not give useful information for analyzing or improving project performance, and a very late review may delay product delivery and lead to opportunity loss for developers. Therefore, it is assumed that the optimal time for review is in the later stage of testing when the fault removal rate starts to decline. The expression for this time point is determined using the S-curve 2-D software reliability growth model (SRGM).

The methodology has been illustrated using the real-life fault datasets of Tandem computers and radar systems resulting in optimal review time of 14 weeks and 26 months, respectively, which is neither very early in testing nor very near to the scheduled release. The developer can make changes (more resources or postpone release) to expedite the process.

Most of the literature studies focus on determination of optimal testing or release time to achieve considerable reliability within the budget, but in this study, the authors determine the optimal review time during testing using SRGM to ensure the considerable reliability at release.

John Taylor devised a simple monetary policy rule that links the Federal Reserve's policy interest rate with inflation and output targets. This paper compares actual policy rates with the rates that would have been recommended by the basic Taylor Rule for three long periods in U.S. economic history: 1875–1913 (“Pre Fed”), 1914–1951 (“Early Fed”), and 1952–1998 (“Modern Fed”). In addition, the authors develop a more complex version of the Rule to facilitate a comparison of the way in which each monetary authority would have reacted to the economic challenges presented outside its own time period. The empirical evidence suggests that Modern Fed would have reacted more promptly and appropriately to inflation and output problems outside its time period than either Early Fed or Pre Fed, and that the movement of interest rates in the Pre Fed period came closer to the corrective policies of Modern Fed than did those of Early Fed.

We would like to thank C. Y. Chen, Wenchih Lee, two anonymous referees and the seminar participants at the 2000 FMA annual meeting for their helpful comments and encouragement. All of the remaining errors are our responsibility.

Asynchronous current account trends between North and South of the Euro Area were accompanied by significant appreciations of real exchange rate originating in the strong shifts in consumer prices and unit labor costs in the periphery economies relative to the core countries of the Euro Area. The issue is whether the real exchange rate is a significant driver of persisting current account imbalances in the Euro Area considering that, according to some authors, differences in domestic demand are more important than is often realized. In the paper we examine relative importance of real exchange rate and demand shocks according to the current account adjustments in the Euro Area member countries. Our results indicate that while the prices and costs related determinants of external competitiveness affected current account adjustments primarily during the pre-crisis period, demand drivers shaped current account balances mainly during the crisis period.

The purpose of this study is to examine the underresearched transformative service research (TSR) and social marketing segment of young adults who use drugs and identify motivators that have been studied in previous literature, using a service ecosystem lens and provide direction for future research into this area. This research provides the evidence-based knowledge for transformative service and social marketing practitioners to design transformative services that target these motivators.

This systematic review, guided by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis framework, examines and analyses 207 articles published between 2015 and 2020.

This study identified that young adults are motivated to take drugs to enhance one’s experience, to cope, for social reasons, because of individual characteristics and for other reasons. Research has largely focused on microsystem and mesosystem motivators with data collected mainly using a microsystem approach.

This paper contributes to the TSR and social marketing literature by providing a holistic investigation into all motivators relevant to young adult drug use. An ecosystem classification and theoretical framework of the motivators is curated to help guide future TSR and social marketing research and interventions.

Speculation, hypothesizing and imagination are the dreamer’s tools. Advanced research and novel technology for the military often profit from what are sometimes unstructured approaches to invention. Once that reality materializes, it may be stranger than the phantasma of the most unleashed of minds.

Regions in economic development find themselves in most cases at a great distance from the countries that can be considered as the sources of tourists. As such, these regions are not in a favourable position, because the relation between the duration of the voyage and the sojourn is not economical unless for wealthy people.

The aim of this paper is to suggest some potential linkages between Consumer Culture Theory (CCT hereafter) and the evolving Service-Dominant logic (S-D hereafter) propounded by Vargo and Lusch in a series of publications (Vargo & Lusch, 2004, 2006a, 2006b). I begin by discussing why this alliance makes sense. To do this, I review the CCT roots of several foundational propositions for the S-D logic Vargo and Lusch (2004) offer. Then I offer a suggestion for rethinking the notion of consumer itself. And finally, I discuss some potential changes in preferred constructs that I believe are necessary to fulfill the theoretical promise of the CCT perspective, and follow on from embracing a CCT/S-D perspective.

The role of money and monetary policy of the central bank in pursuing macroeconomic stability has significantly changed over the period since the end of World War II. Globalization, liberalization, integration, and transition processes generally shaped the crucial milestones of the macroeconomic development and substantial features of economic policy and its framework in Europe. Policy-driven changes together with variety of exogenous shocks significantly affected the key features of macroeconomic environment on the European continent that fashioned the framework and design of monetary policies.

This chapter examines the key basis of the central bank’s monetary policy on its way to pursue and preserve the internal and external stability of the purchasing power of money. Substantial elements of the monetary policy like objectives and strategies are not only generally introduced but also critically discussed according to their accuracy, suitability, and reliability in the changing macroeconomic conditions. Brief overview of the Eurozone common monetary policy milestones and the past Eastern bloc countries’ experience with a variety of exchange rate regimes provides interesting empirical evidence on origins and implications of vital changes in the monetary policy conduction in Europe and the Eurozone.

Mass customisation, defined as the mass production of individually customised goods and services, aims at providing products and services that are more suited to the needs or desires of today’s fragmented consumer markets. Mass customisers should identify how needs or desires of the fragmented market shape the customisation of not just the product and service, but also the mass customisation experience. Towards this end, the authors examined whether an individual’s preferred level for environmental stimulation defined as optimum stimulation level (OSL) was associated with the types of products, services and experiences desired from mass customisation of apparel. As the authors hypothesised, OSL had significant positive correlations with willingness to use co‐design services to create a unique design, trying co‐design as an exciting experience, overall commitment to using co‐design, and trying body scanning as an exciting experience. OSL did not have significant correlations with the more banal willingness to use body scanning services for better fitting products or overall commitment to using body scanning. There was also a significant positive correlation between OSL and interest in customising experiential products, but not between OSL and interest in customising utilitarian products, as hypothesised. Results support research of the influence of OSL on consumer behaviour. Implications for the industry include considering experience aspects and environmental stimulation when developing a mass customisation programme.

Based on Greimas' contributions in 2002 and on qualitative research, this paper aims to focus on a semiotic analysis of the meaning of nostalgia related to products and brands.

This paper involves a two‐stage interview process. Informants were interviewed first in T1 (July‐August 2005) about products and brands connected to nostalgic feelings. They were re‐interviewed a year after in T2 (June‐July 2006). Pictures of products and brands evoked in T1 were shown and informants where asked what came to mind when they where exposed to such material. Based on the transcription of the interviews, a three‐step content analysis was performed: a first reading of the corpus made it possible to identify the two dimensions of time that structure the informant's discourse: “continuity” and “discontinuity”. Then a lexical analysis of the vocabulary associated with nostalgic experience was computed. Finally, a semiotic analysis of the texts was performed.

The two opposing dimensions of a semiotic square, “continuity” versus “discontinuity” provide a structure for understanding the most important features of nostalgia: “long‐standing nostalgia” (continuity) and “first‐time nostalgia” (discontinuity). This provides a typology of four nostalgic moments: everyday past, uniqueness, tradition and transition which are linked to specific brands and objects.

Since this typology is qualitative, it must be confirmed on a larger scale in order to be implemented by managers in the marketing decision‐making process.

These four distinct moments enable a researcher to propose a typology of brands, products or objects that when considered in association, can provide a better understanding of emotional attachment.