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The contents and function of a computer package to fit reliability models for computer software are outlined. Parameters in the models are, in the first place, estimated by maximum likelihood estimation procedures. Bayesian estimation methods are also used and are shown to give estimates with a smaller variance than their MLE counterparts. An example of the application to a particular set of failure times is given.

Surveys measuring consumers’ preferences for sustainable food might suffer from socially desirable responding. Social desirability stems in part from social norms about sustainable lifestyles, when respondents need approval from others and when privacy is not guaranteed during survey completion. While various studies showed this phenomenon through laboratory experiments and by comparing different modes of survey administration, no research adopted factorial survey experiments (FSEs) to measure which factors are perceived by consumers as critical for socially desirable answering. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap, at least for young consumers in a case study with organic fruit.

In total, 143 under-30 respondents were involved in an FSE. Each respondent evaluated six hypothetical scenarios (n=858) describing a consumer surveyed about his/her preferences for organic fruit. Respondents indicated whether they believed participants would have answered honestly or not to the survey described in each scenario. Generalized linear mixed models were used to model how scenario attributes were perceived to influence honest answering.

Respondents believe that people are more prone to bias their answers the more they seek approval from others. Moreover, the presence of acquaintances during survey completion is another critical driver of survey misreporting.

This study, by using a novel robust quasi-experimental approach, confirms that social desirability could lead consumers to misreport their preferences when surveyed about an organic fruit. This confirms that well-designed surveys, adopting proper remedies for social desirability should be adopted even for those food products, like fruit, which are usually deemed to be less subjected to misreporting. It also introduces FSEs as a flexible tool for collecting insights from consumers about potential antecedents of their behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to develop some robust approaches to estimate the logistic regression profile parameters in order to decrease the effects of outliers on the performance of T² control chart. In addition, the performance of the non-robust and the proposed robust control charts is evaluated in Phase II.

In this paper some, robust approaches including weighted maximum likelihood estimation, redescending M-estimator and a combination of these two approaches (WRM) are used to decrease the effects of outliers on estimating the logistic regression parameters as well as the performance of the T² control chart.

The results of the simulation studies in both Phases I and II show the better performance of the proposed robust control charts rather than the non-robust control chart for estimating the logistic regression profile parameters and monitoring the logistic regression profiles.

In many practical applications, there are outliers in processes which may affect the estimation of parameters in Phase I and as a result of deteriorate the statistical performance of control charts in Phase II. The methods developed in this paper are effective for decreasing the effect of outliers in both Phases I and II.

This paper considers monitoring the logistic regression profile in Phase I under the presence of outliers. Also, three robust approaches are developed to decrease the effects of outliers on the parameter estimation and monitoring the logistic regression profiles in both Phases I and II.

Research shows that teams often fail to surface and use unique information to evaluate decision alternatives. Under a condition known as the hidden profile, each member uniquely possesses a critical clue needed to uncover the superior solution. Failure to share and adequately evaluate this information will result in poor decision quality. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the devil's advocacy technique on the decision quality of hidden profile teams.

In order to mitigate this team decision‐making bias, the present study utilizes experimental research to examine the impact of the devil's advocacy technique on the decision quality of hidden profile teams.

Results show that devil's advocacy groups achieved higher decision quality than groups under free discussion. However, devil's advocacy teams also had higher levels of affective conflict. As a result, while they selected the best solution, devil's advocacy introduced conditions that may hinder the solution's implementation

Similar experiments with advocacy techniques suggest that the positive effect on decision quality found here may be reduced in the presence of stronger hidden profiles.

While the devil's advocacy technique has the potential to uncover hidden profiles and improve group decision making, the paper recommends that managers use this technique only in teams with strong critical thinking norms that foster constructive conflict.

To the authors' knowledge, no study has examined the impact of devil's advocacy in groups where information is not shared equally prior to deliberations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of racial profiling when the traffic stop outcome is a search using focal concerns theory as a theoretical explanation for police officer decision making and propensity score matching (PSM) as a better analysis to understand the race of the driver.

The data for this study come from traffic stops conducted by the Louisville Police Department between January 1 and December 31, 2002.

The results show that the elements of focal concerns theory matter most when it comes to if a traffic stop that resulted in a search even though racial profiling was evident. The use of PSM provides evidence that it is a better statistical technique when studying racial profiling. The gender of the driver was significant for male drivers but not for female drivers.

The data for this study are cross-sectional and are self-report data from the police officer.

This paper serves as a theoretical explanation that other researchers could use when studying racial profiling along with a better type of statistical analysis being PSM.

The findings based on focal concerns theory could provide an explanation for police officer decision making that police departments could use to help citizens understand why a traffic stop search took place.

This is the first study of its kind to the researcher’s knowledge to apply focal concerns theory with PSM to understand traffic stop searches.

This study aims to provide insights on how different sources of information concerning a quality assurance program (QAP) influence consumers’ wine purchase likelihood, profiles of consumers most likely to use QAPs (demographics, wine consumption and expenditures, wine involvement behaviors) and consumer attitudes toward QAPs.

Data are from a 2021 survey of 1,191 wine consumers in Tennessee and other US states. A multiple indicators multiple causes model is used to estimate how consumer demographics, wine consumption and expenditure patterns and several wine-involvement measures influence likelihood of using QAPs from eight provider sources when making wine purchase decisions. Sources include university, government, third-party certifiers, wineries and wine associations at the state, regional, national and international levels.

Wine consumers have an interest in QAP information when making wine purchase decisions. Not all QAP provider information is used equally, with almost 69% of the sample indicating the use of state wine association QAPs, but less than 44% indicating the use of government agency QAPs or third-party QAPs. Wine consumers’ demographics also influence the use of QAP information. Males, higher income consumers, residing outside of Tennessee and more wine-involved consumers are more likely to use QAPs. Consumers view QAPs as indicators of overall wine quality, ingredient quality and wine consistency rather than necessarily a means of building knowledge about local wines.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine not only QAP use from multiple providers but also how demographics, wine consumption, wine expenditures and wine-involvement impact QAP use.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand why many researchers do not have a profile on social networking sites (SNS), and whether this is the result of conscious decisions.

Thematic analysis was conducted on a large qualitative data set from researchers across three levels of seniority, four countries and four disciplines to explore their attitudes toward and experiences with SNS.

The study found much greater scepticism toward adopting SNS than previously reported. Reasons behind researchers’ scepticism range from SNS being unimportant for their work to not belonging to their culture or habits. Some even felt that a profile presented people negatively and might harm their career. These concerns were mostly expressed by junior and midlevel researchers, showing that the largest opponents to SNS may unexpectedly be younger researchers.

A limitation of this study was that the authors did not conduct the interviews, and therefore reframing or adding questions to specifically unpack comments related to attitudes, feelings or the use of SNS in academia was not possible.

By studying implicit attitudes and experiences, this study shows that instead of being ignorant of SNS profiles, some researchers actively opt for a non-use of profiles on SNS.

Suggests that the development of new interactive service is stimulating the global convergence of the telecommunications, computer and media markets, creating an integrated industry, but there is some doubt about customer demand and how to approach it. Presents a study which contributes to the discourse on segmentation with a view to targeting. Tests the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the early adoption of previous technological innovations introduced over the past 15‐20 years and the predisposition to use new interactive services. The results of a small scale survey did not lend full support to this hypothesis; associations were established only in a small number of pairs of innovations. There were, however, significant subsegments within the sample which were positively predisposed to using education services, travel, news/information and video‐on‐demand through the new interactive technologies. Within the evidence examined, it could not be established that early adopters of communications and computer products are necessarily a starting target market for emerging technologies. Concludes that exploitation of interactive services requires recognition of the likely existence of differentiated market segments and thus the crafting of focused marketing strategies for different service packages.

Socially responsible investment (SRI) funds have grown dramatically as an investment alternative in most of the developed world. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study uses a structured experimental approach to determine if the decision-making process of investors to invest in SRIs is consistent with the process used for conventional investments. The theoretical framework draws on two widely studied concepts in the decision making and investment literature, namely, inertia and discounting.

The authors find that inertia plays a significant role in the selection of SRI funds and that investors systemically discount the value of SRIs.

The results suggest that SRIs need to be designed to cater to the risk/return profiles of investors and that these investors need to be better informed about the performance of SRIs vs conventional investments to reduce their systematic discounting.

Unique experimental approach applied to investment alternatives in a manner that captures individual level variation.

The authors probe the relationships between country institutional support for entrepreneurship and new venture survival. Specifically, the authors unpack the nuanced influences of entrepreneurs' perceived environmental uncertainty and their subsequent entrepreneurial behavioral profiles and how this particularly bolsters venture survival in contexts with underdeveloped institutions for entrepreneurship.

Coleman (1990) ‘bathtub’ framework is applied to develop a model and propositions surrounding how and when emerging market entrepreneur's perceptions of their countries institutional support toward entrepreneurship can ultimately enhance new venture survival.

Entrepreneurs' interpretations of regulatory, cognitive and normative institutional support for private enterprise helps them embrace uncertainties more accurately reflective of “on the ground” realities and stimulates constructive entrepreneurial behaviors. These are critical for increasing survival prospects in characteristically turbulent, emerging market contexts that typically lack reliable formal resources for cultivating nascent ventures.

This paper has implications for international policymakers seeking to stimulate and sustain entrepreneurial ventures in emerging markets. The authors shed light on the practical importance of understanding the social realities and interpretations of entrepreneurs in a given country relating to their actual perceptions of support for venturing—cautioning a tendency for outsiders to over-rely on aggregated econometric indices and various national ‘doing business' rankings.

This study is the first to create a conceptual framework on the mechanisms of how entrepreneurs in emerging economies affect new venture survival. Drawing on Coleman's bathtub (1990), the authors develop propositional arguments for a multilevel sequential framework that considers how developing economies' country institutional profiles (CIP) influence entrepreneurs' perceptions of environmental uncertainty. Subsequently, this cultivates associated entrepreneurial behavior profiles, which ultimately enhance (inhibit) venture survival rates. Further, the authors discuss the boundary conditions of this regarding how the national culture serves to moderate each of these key relationships in both positive and negative ways.