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This paper aims to review the validation of assumptions made in agent-based modeling of diffusion and the sufficiency (completeness) of the mechanisms assumed to operate.

One well-cited paper is examined.

Evidence is presented that casts doubt on the assumptions and mechanisms used. A range of mechanisms is suggested that should be evaluated for inclusion in diffusion modeling.

The need for validation of assumptions has been stressed elsewhere but there has been a lack of examples. This paper provides examples. The stress on the sufficiency of the mechanisms used is new.

This paper aims to respond to the commentaries by Nejad, and Rand and Rust on the paper “Improving Agent-Based Models of Diffusion”.

Evidence on the nature of word of mouth was reviewed and related to the views expressed by the authors of the commentaries.

The authors of this paper remain concerned about the assumptions used in agent-based models of diffusion.

The study refers to previously published work.

The rise of East Asia to most dynamic center of processes of capital accumulation on a world scale is a phenomenon of the 1970s and 1980s. As a first approximation, the extent of this rise can be gauged from the trends depicted in figure 1. The figure shows the most conspicuous instances of “catching‐up” with the level of per capita income of the “organic core” of the capitalist world‐economy since the Second World War. As defined elsewhere, the organic core consists of all the countries that over the last half‐century or so have consistently occupied the top positions of the ranking of GNPs per capita and, in virtue of that position, have set (individually and collectively) the standards of wealth which all their governments have sought to maintain and all other governments have sought to attain. Broadly speaking, three regions have constituted the organic core since the Second World War: North America, Western Europe and Australasia (Arrighi, 1991: 41–2; Arrighi, 1990).

East Asia's emergence as the forthcoming center of global manufacturing is leading nations in the region to reconsider their current and future role in the world economy. For its part, the Republic of Korea is pursuing a strategy to transform the country into the business hub of Northeast Asia. A central aspect in this strategy is the development of a regional “Pentaport” in the city of lncheon, which will consist of five components: an airport, a seaport, a business port, a technoport, and a leisure port. Hopefully, the Port of lncheon will be able to specialize in moving both coastal cargoes and transshipment cargoes to and from China and Japan using Short Sea Shipping (SSS). The first section of this paper provides an analysis of recent trade patterns between the Asian countries of the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agreement and the United States, with an emphasis on the Republic of Korea. The second part of the paper discusses current intermodal coastal shipping practices in the United States along the Gulf of Mexico and offers suggestions to the developers of Korea s Pentaport initiative; based upon observations in the United States, to maximize the likelihood of their success.

THE EAST AFRICAN SCHOOL of Librarianship was the brainchild of S. W. Hockey, at one time Libraries Organiser in East Africa for the British Council. In 1960 Hockey submitted a report to the Governors of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, proposing the establishment of a joint librarianship school for the three territories. This was at a time when a big expansion of the public library service was taking place, or at least was being planned, throughout the region, but Hockey also foresaw that a fast growth of school and specialist libraries was bound to come within the decade. It would have been difficult at that time to find a single fully qualified African librarian in any of the three countries.

Strategy model making has become a lucrative and growing industry. This industry appears to have no real purpose but superficially peddles the idea of a turnkey solution which is neither generic nor sustainable. As a result, the solution has now become part of the problem, obscuring the real issue. This paper exposes the risks and limitations associated with the products of the model‐making industry in order to demonstrate how organisations should treat strategy formulation and implementation. This remains an important but misrepresented area. The approach proposed in this paper links the concepts of continuous revolution with constant evolution in a way that explains competitive survival.

Although technology has always been, and will continue to be, the hallmark of human activity, it remains a poorly understood concept. There is little recognition that behind technology lies a technology, the accelerating application of which is making the presence of the technological revolution more and more visible. The most obvious manifestation of this is the increasing frequency in the redefinition of the way in which society lives and works. This article, while demonstrating humankind as technology creatures, provides an explanation of how society progresses or regresses by resolving or failing to resolve the paradoxes inherent in technology through uncovering both its mythology and economy.

States that more firms are locating operations in Australia to serve the domestic market and as a base for entering other Asian markets. Many of these firms will outsource at least part of their logistics function and this is a growing trend throughout the world. Describes how a mail survey of the major operating units at the largest firms in Australia was conducted to determine the current extent of logistics outsourcing in Australia. Provides the results from this survey together with responses from earlier studies on the usage of contract logistics services in the USA and Western Europe for comparative purposes.

As globalization intensifies, the need for tapping the capabilities of corporations’ human resources, gecome more paramount. To this end, businesses cannot afford to have their most important resource, their people, hampered by attitudes that detract from their abilities to perform at their best. This is especially relevant when there may be a misconception that being male is synonymous with management competency. The focus of this research was on exploring the attitudes towards women managers in the United States and Poland. Questionnaires were distributed to two groups of individuals within each nation, professionals and graduating business students or “future managers”. There were 157 and 295 usable responses from Poland and the United States, respectively. The results indicate that Polish women may have more negative attitudes to overcome in becoming managers in comparison to the US counterparts. Perhaps more disconcerting is the potential that “future managers” in Poland may have even more negative attitudes toward women as managers.

Examines the determinants that influence consumers’ intention to buy environmentally friendly products. Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour (TPB) provides the conceptual framework of the research and the appropriateness of the theory and is tested in two distinct market conditions (UK and Greece). Although the findings offer considerable support for the robustness of the TPB in explaining intention in both samples, there is some indication that the theory is more appropriate in well established markets that are characterised by clearly formulated behavioural patterns (i.e. the model fitting elements of the UK sample are superior to the corresponding ones obtained from the Greek sample). The results are consistent with previous research on moral behaviour.