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Most of the research on collaborative consumption platforms (CCPs) has focused on motivational drives, and little research has been conducted on the problem of unbalanced information sharing, also known as the “lemons problem,” and signals. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study conducted a netnography and an experiment.

The netnographic study showed that participants tend to use low ratings and negative reviews as cues implying more searches, use ratings as an anchor to adjust other information, and employ differing cognitive information-processing styles. The experimental results show that, in a normal environment (when ratings are high), visualizers (verbalizers) have more of an intention to use CCPs when they are exposed to abundant pictures (textual cues); however, when the cues lead to a further information search (when the ratings are low), this search behavior pattern is reversed: visualizers (verbalizers) have more of an intention to use CCPs when they are exposed to abundant textual cues (pictures).

This study extends previous research by showing that people frequently use differing heuristics depending on the context; that ratings have an anchoring effect and guide people in selecting a signal to use and condition how they use it; and that visualizers prefer text cues to pictorial cues when trying to make informed decisions under a condition that points to a further information search. These results are opposite of previous assertion.

Marketers are advised to provide a mechanism by which users can extract the cues they need and reduce the less urgent ones; devise a mechanism that screens participants and divides them into two categories: those who post honest evaluations and those who do not; and reduce the opportunistic behaviors of partners on both sides.

The current study addresses consumers’ use of information posted by other consumers on CCPs and demonstrates that participants use low ratings and negative reviews as cues implying more searches, use ratings as an anchor to adjust other information, and employ differing cognitive information-processing styles. Previous research rarely addressed these information search behaviors of consumers on CCPs.

1.1. Logical Necessity of the Three Dimensions as a Unit of Thought The mathematician does not look kindly on the simple question of why natural space should consist of precisely three dimensions. Instead of giving an answer he assumes a silent smile and shows us a version of space with an infinity of dimensions, as if space were some kind of toy for him to fiddle with to his heart's content.

This paper sets out to develop a bridge for the existing gap in knowledge by exploring the characteristics of the tenants of some LA housing estates and how they affect maintenance need. Without the proper integration of information relating to property and the users of the dwelling, the phenomenon of housing maintenance need prediction will remain an intractable problem for housing managers. The paper therefore explores the hypothesis that dwellings within the same estate and having every conceivable architectural attribute in space and time in common will exhibit different maintenance need profiles as a result of differences in tenants’ characteristics.

On the basis of previous work, the authors aim to further study the problem of infinity existing in between predicates and sets.

A conceptual approach is taken in the paper.

The authors modify the conventional rule of thinking that each predicate determines a unique set, and establish a principle regarding the relationship between predicates and sets. Then, the authors study the structures of actually infinite, rigid sets.

The structure of actually infinite sets is detailed.

In the field of information systems, workflow modelling has attracted a lot of researchers. Most works in the domain do not take into consideration the concrete execution of resulting workflows. This failure puts beside the time and resource concepts. The aim of this paper is to develop a model that allows to deal with the execution of workflows based on the constraints of the resources.

Based on the domain engineering approach, one describes models of a business processes, and resources in an incremental manner. At each step of the modelling, one defines some requirements for the validation of the models.

The formalization gives the core features that are suitable to deal with the organisational aspect of business process management. These features are generic as they can be extended to capture the representation of various stages in the resource and business process management.

This paper does not deal with the concrete assignment of tasks to resources, and does not show how these features can be refined in order to model real world business processes. This work can be extended by defining some case studies, developing a supporting tool and carrying analysis.

By applying these models in daily work, enterprises will improve their productivity and deal with the competitive pressure of the network economy.

This paper defines an ontological framework for the business process, resource and correctness of a workflow within an enterprise that may be used by enterprise managers in the delivery of goods and services.

Future studies can be given several interpretations. The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for anticipation in a well delimited frame, that of multi‐scale complex systems with a dynamic directed by the cooperation/competition between a net of agents, the “co‐regulators”, each operating with its own rhythm and logic, with the help of a central memory. These systems include social systems of different sizes from small social groups, to large societies, and also living or artificial cognitive systems.

The study is conducted in the frame of the Memory Evolutive Systems, a model for such systems, which the author has developed with Jean‐Paul Vanbremeersch in a series of publications since 1987; this model is based on a “dynamic” category theory.

It is found that the characteristics of these systems making them capable of developing complex scenarios are: a kind of “flexible redundancy” (possibility of switches between decompositions of complex components), called the Multiplicity Principle; development of a hierarchical, robust though flexible, memory containing an internal model of the system and its environment; modulation of the global dynamic by an interplay between the local dynamics of the co‐regulators, in which the non respect of the “synchronicity laws” may lead to cascades of dysfunctions backfiring between levels.

The model shows how to develop innovative scenarios through a sequence of retrospection and prospection processes.

In 1970 only two manufacturers existed in the United States, namely the American Machine and Foundry (AMF) Versatran and the Unimation, Inc. Unimate. These robots, still in the forefront today, were just emerging and gaining acceptance in 1970, with approximately 200 industrial robots at work in the U.S., and an amassed 600,000 hours on the job, a negligible amount considering that the total U.S.blue collar work force puts in 200 million hours each day. However more than seventeen types of robots are now available in the U.S. at least twelve of which are manufactured in this country. They range from minirobots with payloads of only a few ounces and reaches of less than a foot to the larger universal robots which can handle payloads of up to 150 lbs., reach 3 ½ ft., and move at speeds up to 3 ft./sec. Recent additions to the U.S. arsenal are the Burch Control robot with a payload capacity of 6000 lbs. Industrial robots are easily reprogrammable, operatorless handling devices that can perform simple, repetitive jobs that require few alternative actions and minimum communications with the work environment. They are well suited to handling parts that are red hot or feezing cold, and they can function in corrosive, noxious or extremely dusty atmospheres that would be injurious to human beings. Passage in the United States of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 has provided strong impetus for the use of industrial robots. As discussed in a recent article in Assembly Engineering Magazine (Ref.1), the Act currently states that a human being cannot place his hands within punch press dies to load or remove parts, and it is imminent that OSHA standards will be extended to cover other fabricating and assembly machines, such as staking presses, spot welding machines, riveting machines, holding and clamping equipment, electron component Inserting equipment, and automatic screwdriving machines. In many cases the cost and time to retool an existing operation to conform to the standards will be prohibitive compared to the cost and time required to purchase and program an industrial robot to perform the potentially dangerous operations.

This paper investigates which company characteristics affect the decision to introduce profit‐sharing. Unlike most studies, this paper relies on a ten‐year panel. The results presented in this paper are based on the estimation of a panel data fixed‐effect logit model. Given that they are immune from heterogeneity bias, it is believed that these results are more reliable than those obtained by estimating cross‐sectional models. These results are in line with the common findings of the literature. Companies that are more likely to introduce profit‐sharing (PS) are larger firms which invest more, due to the lower cost of debt, and tend to pay higher wages as an incentive to boost the initially lower productivity. These companies are more likely to undertake investment projects which support the interpretation of PS as a risk‐sharing device.

To explain the objectivity of the globalisation process by using the mathematical theory of topological structures.

After a brief presentation of the history and features of the globalisation phenomena, there are presented the basic notions of the mathematical concept of topology. Besides geometrical distance and geometrical topology, the authors define informational distance and informational topology. An informational neighbourhood of a person P is the informational medium that he/she masters, a set of persons with whom P communicates in a well‐determined interval of time. There is presented a hierarchy of informational topologies which structured human life on Earth. Nowadays, the world benefits from the finest topology, the topology of communication by the internet (TCI).

The possibility to conceive the globalisation process as a multidimensional vector function defined on the set of the world population. The projections of this vector function on the subsystems of human life refer to the political, economic, military, cultural or religious life. The continuity of this function in the TCI sense expresses the possibility for the globalisation phenomenon to be controlled.

The very understanding of the objectivity of the globalisation process and an important conclusion: the control of the situation only on a compact geographic area cannot ensure the stability of this area; it must have control over a neighbourhood of the informational topology. This means possessing informational instruments so as to be able to manage the economic, political and social activity and to avoid catastrophe.

Concept of mathematical topological structure applied to a complex social phenomenon.