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Article
Publication date: 22 June 2021

Kármen Kovács

The purpose of this paper is to study which factors affect consumer expenditure and how, when positional concerns matter. It also investigates how consumers finance and reallocate…

238

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study which factors affect consumer expenditure and how, when positional concerns matter. It also investigates how consumers finance and reallocate their expenditure, and modify their consumer baskets when members of their reference groups spend more on positional goods, and they do not want to lag behind.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review is presented, and then a new model is developed from a behavioural economic perspective. It describes how consumers with various risk attitudes reallocate their consumer expenditure and modify their consumer baskets when consumption externalities influence their relative consumption due to a positional game, but they want to “keep up with the Joneses”.

Findings

Consumers with different risk attitudes finance and reallocate their consumption expenditures variously to sustain their relative positions. Risk-neutral, slightly and intermediately risk-seeking consumers achieve a lower utility level than others. They do not realise a utility-maximising consumer basket, as it includes a relatively low number of nonpositional goods, but this choice can be considered the best response in a positional game in order to sustain their relative position.

Originality/value

The relationship between positional and nonpositional goods is explicitly described. The model assumes that consumers can be classified based on their risk attitudes when positional concerns matter. It also describes how consumers with various risk attitudes reallocate their consumer expenditure when they want to sustain or improve their relative consumption in a positional game.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 48 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 7 December 2021

John T. Hanley

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how game theoretic solution concepts inform what classes of problems will be amenable to artificial intelligence and machine learning…

2843

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how game theoretic solution concepts inform what classes of problems will be amenable to artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), and how to evolve the interaction between human and artificial intelligence.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach addresses the development of operational gaming to support planning and decision making. It then provides a succinct summary of game theory for those designing and using games, with an emphasis on information conditions and solution concepts. It addresses how experimentation demonstrates where human decisions differ from game theoretic solution concepts and how games have been used to develop AI/ML. It concludes by suggesting what classes of problems will be amenable to AI/ML, and which will not. It goes on to propose a method for evolving human/artificial intelligence.

Findings

Game theoretic solution concepts inform classes of problems where AI/ML 'solutions' will be suspect. The complexity of the subject requires a campaign of learning.

Originality/value

Though games have been essential to the development of AI/ML, practitioners have yet to employ game theory to understand its limitations.

Details

Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2399-6439

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1975

M.A. KAAZ

The result of a true strategy applied by a (perfectly informed) player in positional games represents a sequence of consecutive choices from a given set. It is, therefore, subject…

Abstract

The result of a true strategy applied by a (perfectly informed) player in positional games represents a sequence of consecutive choices from a given set. It is, therefore, subject to the axiom of choice or some equivalent selection principle. Our attention in this study is focused on the existence of finite sequences associated with winning strategies. It will be shown in the sequel that the use of the axiom of choice may lead to sets devoid of winning strategies, while the negation of this axiom produces winning strategies for both players. A modified axiom, the axiom of determination, is discussed which no longer admits such “paradoxes” in virtue of certain inherent restrictions.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 4 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Book part
Publication date: 2 December 2019

Irina A. Tarasova, Natalia A. Shchukina, Oksana A. Avdeyuk and Vera V. Nekrasova

The purpose of the chapter is to study possible approaches to determining the notion “business system” and to describe possible optimization models of decision-making in modern…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the chapter is to study possible approaches to determining the notion “business system” and to describe possible optimization models of decision-making in modern business systems from the position of these approaches.

Methodology

The methodology of the research includes systemic analysis, discrete event approach in simulation modeling, modeling of complex hierarchical system on the basis of turning criteria into a generalized indicator with the help of functional Kolmogorov mean, and mathematical tools of the Theory of games.

Results

The authors study possible variants of modeling of business systems from the position of various approaches: commercial, practice-oriented, and organizational. Within the commercial approach to defining the notion “business system,” the discrete event approach to simulation modeling on the basis of Markov chains was compiled. A model of starting a certain new commodity in sales was compiled for determining the long-term strategy in the market. Within the practice-oriented approach, evaluation of effectiveness of personal as a component of business system is modeled. Within the organizational approach, two competing companies are modeled on the basis of the positional game.

Recommendations

Finding the optimization model of decision-making in modern business systems is impossible without of the system approach – that is, without considering possible definitions of the term “business system” and compiling the corresponding models. Only the systemic approach will allow for objective and comprehensive modeling of behavior of business systems. The offered methodologies will allow modeling evaluation of the current state of business system, changes of the system in dynamics, and its relations with other business systems.

Details

The Leading Practice of Decision Making in Modern Business Systems
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-475-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 June 2020

Ewan Wright and Haitao Wei

The worldwide expansion of higher education participation has destabilised the value of higher education as a currency of opportunity. An increasing number of graduates are…

Abstract

Purpose

The worldwide expansion of higher education participation has destabilised the value of higher education as a currency of opportunity. An increasing number of graduates are experiencing the precarity of unemployment, under-employment and low salaries. This study aimed to investigate how university students in China understand and respond to the changing relationship between higher education and career opportunities.

Design/methodology/approach

The research team conducted 100 in-depth interviews with final-year undergraduates at one elite and one lower-tier university in a metropolitan city in Guangdong Province.

Findings

The students were acutely aware of fierce competition in the graduate labour market. When asked “what matters most” for post-graduation career prospects, they identified elite universities and high-status fields of study as “traditional” currencies of opportunity. Nonetheless, to stand out in a competitive environment, they perceived a growing need to supplement higher education credentials through university experiences (internships, student governance, study abroad programmes), party membership, personal connections and (overseas) postgraduate education. Moreover, in a “race to the top”, they discussed how qualitatively distinctive university experiences and elite postgraduate education are “new” currencies of opportunity for high-status professional employment.

Originality/value

The study demonstrates how intensified competition for graduate employment can result in an “opportunity trap”. The students were participating in an “arms race” to accumulate positional advantages for their post-graduation careers. The net impact of such efforts on a systemic level is to create an upward spiral in what students are expected to do in preparation for their post-graduation careers and further destabilise the value of higher education as a currency of opportunity.

Details

Asian Education and Development Studies, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-3162

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1974

M.A. KAAZ

The theory of pursuit games is obviously fragmentary at present. We know that general determinability of such games is incompatible with analysis, based on the principle of time…

Abstract

The theory of pursuit games is obviously fragmentary at present. We know that general determinability of such games is incompatible with analysis, based on the principle of time continuity; but we also witness some reasonably successful probing on a smaller scale. The problem is one of existence of winning strategies for quite general sets and spaces. It will be shown here that in one case, where multivalued strategies are used, such strategies must necessarily be subclasses of Polish spaces and in the other, the monovalued case, the loser's set either has to be a first category set in the sense of Baire or an ideal, but in any case a kind of small set. This paper is meant to provide a common topological basis for the appreciation of more recent results.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 3 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1987

VLAD DABIJA

Additive puzzles form a large and important class of problems in Artificial Intelligence, since many other problems may be shown to be homomorphic to them, and many techniques for…

Abstract

Additive puzzles form a large and important class of problems in Artificial Intelligence, since many other problems may be shown to be homomorphic to them, and many techniques for solving them are easily transferable to certain classes of problems. For many additive puzzles, a homomorphic puzzle can be sometimes obtained which is much simpler than the initial one. If the simple puzzle cannot be solved from the image of a state in the first puzzle, then the first puzzle cannot be solved from that state. A method to obtain a simple homomorphic puzzle is by colouring its board. This paper presents an algorithm for colouring the boards of additive puzzles. Three heuristic backtracking decisions are discussed and their experimental performances are compared.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1982

Stuart E. Dreyfus

Possible limitations on the successful formal modeling of human expertise can only be identified if the evolving thought processes involved in acquiring expertise are understood…

Abstract

Possible limitations on the successful formal modeling of human expertise can only be identified if the evolving thought processes involved in acquiring expertise are understood. This paper presents a 5‐stage description of the human skill‐acquisition process, applies it to the skill of business management, and draws conclusions about potential uses and abuses of formal modeling.

Details

Office Technology and People, vol. 1 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0167-5710

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 April 2000

Walt Crawford

179

Abstract

Details

Library Hi Tech News, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0741-9058

Article
Publication date: 7 August 2019

Frederick Ahen

The purpose of this study is to explore in depth the anatomy of post-truth in the quest to set a new research agenda. The author interrogates knowledge production/dissemination…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore in depth the anatomy of post-truth in the quest to set a new research agenda. The author interrogates knowledge production/dissemination and the political positions of those behind them. This study diagnoses and challenges existing claims of supremacy of certain hegemonic epistemological and ontological orthodoxies that have been weaponized.

Design/methodology/approach

This study philosophically engages with different worlds of credible ‘pluriversal’ knowledge(s) and leads to the exposure of historically ‘taken-for-granted’ definitions of the nature and composition of acceptable truth and how it is deeply entrenched in interest group politics.

Findings

Each generation in different contexts has had to battle with specific troubling forces of deception and organized hypocrisy. Here, both new social actors and incumbents influence the disgruntled, deceive the gullible or connect with the enlightened masses at the emotional level whilst strongly undermining the rules-of-logic and fact-based discourses using disruptive social media technologies. The author specifies how the five P’s: political power, profits, populism, politics and the private visions of technologists and scientists will continue to play very influential roles in how knowledge production will affect future policies and global governance.

Social implications

Based on historicized explanations, the author argues that deception and mass ignorance as weaponized features of global governance and its capitalist order are typical Machiavellian strategies for gaining control over knowledge production/information dissemination. Massive changes are not expected in the future unless society and academia introduce novel science, technology and political platforms for engaging society and policy-makers.

Originality/value

The author provides ample historical illustrations to support the claims made in this study that public insights into the postulated structures of post-truth remain extremely superficial, making people insufficiently informed to engage in crucial discourses about knowledge production and dissemination that affect their futures. This study provides several ingredients for stimulating further debate.

Details

foresight, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

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