Search results

Bayesian networks (BNs) are implemented for monitoring a process via statistical process control (SPC) where attribute data are available on output from the system. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The BN provides a graphical and numerical tool to help a manager understand the effect of sample observations on the probability that the process is out-of-control and requires investigation. The parameters for the BN SPC model are statistically designed to minimize the out-of-control average run length (ARL) of the process at a specified in-control ARL and sample size.

The BN model outperforms adaptive np control charts in all experiments, except for some cases where only a large change in the proportion of sample defects is relevant. The BN is particularly useful when small sample sizes are available and when managers need to detect small changes in the proportion of defects produced by the process.

The BN model is statistically designed and parameters are chosen to minimize out-of-control ARL. Future advancements will address the economic design of BNs for SPC with attribute data.

The BNs allow qualitative knowledge to be combined with sample data, and the average percentage of defects can be modeled as a continuous random variable. The framework of the BN easily permits classification of the system operation into two or more states, so diagnostic analysis can be performed simultaneously with statistical inference.

Paying to view others' answers is a new mode for question and answer (Q&A) platforms. The purpose is to build a model to explore the determinants of the number of listeners and further explore certain meaningful characteristics of the model in the context of different types of questions and answerers.

The authors develop an empirical model and use real panel data to test the hypothesis. Specifically, cues from the answerer and from the question elicit the listener's trust in the answerer (including direct and indirect trust) and perceived value in the question (including intrinsic and extrinsic attributes), respectively.

The authors find that cues from answerers (experience for paid Q&As and popularity for free Q&As) and questions (length, sentence structure, value and number of likes) all have positive effects on the number of listeners. The impact of answerer authentication is more significant than the popularity of free Q&As. Moreover, the length of the question matters only for subjective questions, while sentence structure matters only for objective questions. In addition, the answerer's own attributes and the behavior and feedback of others have greater impacts when the answerer is below average in popularity.

The authors summarize the unique features of the mode of paying to view others' answers in contrast with the traditional mode of paid Q&As. In addition, the authors focus on the characteristics of the question (including the subjectivity and the sentence structure of the question), a topic which has not been studied previously. Our research provides a reference for exploring user behavior patterns. The practical implications for knowledge platforms are also concretely described.

Considering the popularity and addictive attributes of microblogging, the purpose of this paper is to explore the key drivers of the microblogging addiction tendency, and to investigate the causal relationship between microblogging usage and addiction tendency through the lens of the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory.

By extending the U&G theory to accommodate the negative consequences of gratification, a research model that explains the relationships among microblogging use, gratification and addiction tendency was developed and empirically examined based on the data collected from 520 microblogging users in China.

The results showed that different types of microblogging use lead to different categories of gratification to different extents, while different categories of gratification play different roles in determining the level of addiction tendency. Specifically, the effect of content gratification on addiction is marginal, while social gratification has significant effects on all dimensions of addiction tendency.

The present study has both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, unlike many previous studies applied the U&G theory to explore the positive outcomes of media uses, this paper extends the U&G by including addiction tendency as a negative psychological outcome of U&G., resulting a research framework (use-gratification-addiction framework). Meanwhile, this paper contributes to the extending literature by examining the constructs of U&G at a granular level and investigated the causal relationship between “uses” and “gratifications.”

Gender competence as part of engineering education can better prepare men and women to work on sustainable solutions that benefit entire societies. This chapter describes the framework and lessons learned of a community of practice (CoP) for gender equality facilitated by the Mediterranean Engineering Schools Network. Faculty and students from Mediterranean European, North African and Middle Eastern countries came together in this CoP, which was supported by the TARGET project, to develop a practical plan using a reflexive approach. The transfer of knowledge between generations is achieved by using participatory learning processes, facilitating mindful awareness, widening experiences, deepening understandings and building a gender-sensitive mindset. Students embarked on the journey to become change agents. The process led to the consolidation of gender equality knowledge, competence building and the development of change agents for gender equality. This CoP can inspire other institutions to undertake a participatory path towards gender equality – at local, regional, or global level.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

In view of the elderly caregiving service being in high demand nowadays, the purpose of this paper is to develop an intelligent e-healthcare system for the domestic care industry by using the Internet of Things (IoTs) and Fuzzy Association Rule Mining (FARM) approach.

The IoTs connected with the e-healthcare system collect real-time vital sign monitoring data for the e-healthcare system. The FARM approach helps to identify the hidden relationships between the data records in the e-healthcare system to support the elderly care management tasks.

To evaluate the proposed system and approach, a case study was carried out to identify the association between the specific collected demographic data, behavior data and the health measurements data in the e-healthcare system. It is found that the discovered rules are useful for the care management tasks in the elderly healthcare service.

Knowledge discovery in databases uses various data mining techniques and rule-based artificial intelligence algorithms. This paper demonstrates complete processes on how an e-healthcare system connected with IoTs can support the elderly care services via a data collection phase, data analysis phase and data reporting phase by using the FARM to evaluate the fuzzy sets of the data attributes. The caregivers can use the discovered rules for proactive decision support of healthcare services and to improve the overall service quality by enhancing the elderly healthcare service responsiveness.

We examine the impact of sales order backlog (an important leading performance indicator) on corporate cash holdings and the role of corporate governance in the relation between sales order backlog and cash holdings.

We use the regression analysis to examine our research questions.

Consistent with the agency motive and the precautionary motive of cash holdings, we document a significant negative relation between order backlog and cash, suggesting that firms with higher order backlog hold less cash. We further examine and find that the relationship between order backlog and cash becomes stronger for firms with stronger corporate governance, highlighting the role of governance in determining the level of corporate cash holdings.

Our study contributes to the accounting literature on sales order backlog and the finance literature on corporate cash holdings. In particular, our study contributes to developing a more comprehensive understanding of the sales order backlog because it is still an under-researched area in accounting. To the best of our knowledge, this study is perhaps the first empirical study that examines the direct link between order backlog and cash.

The Fred Meyer Charitable Trust, Division of Library and Information Resources for the Northwest, has funded five research projects that will demonstrate the potential of various techniques and new technologies to facilitate communications and resource sharing in the Northwest. The experience and information derived from these projects will be of value to all libraries and information centers, not just those conducting the research. The techniques and technologies being evaluated include: simultaneous remote searching, which uses inexpensive terminals and modems; a mini‐computer‐based union list and resource sharing network (INFONET); networks using facsimile machines; networks that transmit documents that have been optically scanned into bit‐map image files; and use of optical character recognition equipment to capture ASCII machine‐readable information that can be broadcast by television stations to user‐sites. Contributors of reports are: Verl Anderson, Linda Brander, Millard F. Johnson, Jr., Bruce Morton, and Steve Smith. Summary observations are provided by Joseph R. Matthews.

Regarding the global development of the wine industry, China has gained a notable share in terms of wine consumption, and its domestic wine production has increased steadily since 2000. The wine production process requires close coordination between growers and processors to avoid disruption and instability in the supply chain of the wine grapes. However, vertical coordination in the Chinese wine regions has received little attention. Based on the existing theoretical background on vertical coordination, this study aims to detect the evolution processes of vertical coordination in the Chinese grape market.

Exploratory qualitative research fits with the aim of this study. From December 2018 to January 2019, interviews with grape growers and wine processors of various Chinese wine-producing areas took place. After transcribing all recorded files into text, a qualitative data analysis following the approach of Mayring (2015) was used to analyse and interpret the data.

The models of vertical coordination in the grape supply in China vary between the producer's requirements on grape quality/quantity and the arrangements of grape supply chains, which are diverse depending on regional strategies of the local government.

However, in this research, the authors did not get into details on the organization of the contractual coordination, and due to the limited access to grape growers, the relationship between farmers and processors cannot be analysed in detail. With a better understanding of the coordination relationship and enhanced contract enforcement, the vineyard management and grape supply chain management can be better performed, inducing a steady industrial development.

Regarding the global development of the wine industry, China has gained a notable share in terms of wine consumption, and its domestic wine production has increased steadily since 2000. However, vertical coordination in the Chinese wine regions has received little attention. The study provides a first insight into the grape market structures, as very little is known.

Presents a special issue, enlisting the help of the author’s students and colleagues, focusing on age, sex, colour and disability discrimination in America. Breaks the evidence down into manageable chunks, covering: age discrimination in the workplace; discrimination against African‐Americans; sex discrimination in the workplace; same sex sexual harassment; how to investigate and prove disability discrimination; sexual harassment in the military; when the main US job‐discrimination law applies to small companies; how to investigate and prove racial discrimination; developments concerning race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; developments concerning discrimination against workers with HIV or AIDS; developments concerning discrimination based on refusal of family care leave; developments concerning discrimination against gay or lesbian employees; developments concerning discrimination based on colour; how to investigate and prove discrimination concerning based on colour; developments concerning the Equal Pay Act; using statistics in employment discrimination cases; race discrimination in the workplace; developments concerning gender discrimination in the workplace; discrimination in Japanese organizations in America; discrimination in the entertainment industry; discrimination in the utility industry; understanding and effectively managing national origin discrimination; how to investigate and prove hiring discrimination based on colour; and, finally, how to investigate sexual harassment in the workplace.