Search results

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the extent at which idiosyncratic and financial market uncertainty affect the UK private manufacturing firms' investment decisions.

A firm‐level panel data covering the period from 1999 to 2008 drawn from the Financial Analysis Made Easy database was analyzed using the system‐generalized method of moments (GMM) technique to purge time‐invariant unobserved firm‐specific effects and to mitigate the potential endogeneity issues.

The results from the two‐step robust system‐GMM estimation indicate that firms significantly reduce their capital investment expenditures when uncertainty (measured by either form) increases. The findings also reveal that private firms' investment is more sensitive to idiosyncratic uncertainty than to financial market uncertainty. The results related to firm characteristics suggest that the firm‐specific variables such as debt‐to‐assets ratio, growth of sales and cash flow‐to‐assets ratio are also important in the determination of private firms' investment. The sensitivity analysis confirms that the findings are robust to an alternative method of estimation as well as to an alternative measure of idiosyncratic uncertainty.

The findings of the paper are useful for firms' investment decisions and authorities in designing effective fiscal and monetary policies.

The main value of this study is to investigate the effects of both idiosyncratic and financial market uncertainty on the investment decisions of private limited manufacturing firms.

An understanding of uncertainty has always been an integral part of property valuations. No valuation is certain, and the valuer needs to convey to the user of the valuation in the degree of uncertainty pertaining to the market value.

This practice briefing is a short overview of the importance of understanding uncertainty in valuation in normal markets and the particular difficulties now with the material uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper discusses how important it is for the valuer and the client to communicate and understand the uncertainty in the market at any point of time. The COVID-19 has had a significant impact on property values and the importance of clarity within valuation reports.

This paper looks at the importance of placing capital and rental value changes due to material uncertainty in valuation reports.

This provides guidance on how professional bodies are advising their members, around the world, on how to report valuations and market value in the context of material uncertainty.

This paper concerns with the measurement uncertainty estimation in the analog‐to‐digital conversion‐based instruments. By using an ad hoc developed software tool, the Monte Carlo method is applied in order to assess the uncertainties associated with the measurement results, overcoming the possible inapplicability of the pure theoretical approach prescribed in the ISO – “Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement”. By implementing the software tool in the measurement instruments, the proposed approach can be utilized in order to make the instrument itself able to auto‐estimate the measurement uncertainties.

Bench‐top wind tunnels are used extensively by the US Air Force for calibrating anemometers. As anemometers have improved, the need for reduced uncertainties in the bench‐top wind tunnels was required. A three‐pronged approach was used to reduce low velocity uncertainties by a factor of 2‐3.Design/methodology/approach – The reduction in velocity uncertainties was achieved by upgrading the wind tunnel instrumentation that measured the pressure and differential pressure and by improving the velocity calibration of the bench‐top wind tunnel. A detailed uncertainty analysis was performed to determine how much the instrumentation needed to improve. A laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) was used to calibrate each wind tunnel at low velocities.Findings – The uncertainty analysis indicated that the main contributors to the velocity uncertainty were the differential pressure and the pressure measurements. These two process instruments were upgraded to reduce their individual uncertainties by a factor of 2. Additionally each bench‐top wind tunnel was calibrated using the LDV with special emphasis on flows from 0.15‐3.0 m/s. In all, nine wind tunnels were calibrated and the upgraded systems exhibited a reduction in uncertainties in the low flow region of a factor of 2‐3.Originality/value – A need to reduce velocity uncertainties in bench‐top wind tunnels was a requirement for the US Air Force calibration program. Upgraded instrumentation and individual calibration with an LDV provided the needed reduction. In the low flow region of 0.15 to 3.0 m/s, uncertainties were reduced by a factor of 2‐3.

To present the application of a business model for holistic uncertainty management for twenty‐first century manufacturing enterprises.

A questionnaire survey is carried out to UK manufacturing enterprises to collect relevant data, and analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis and cluster analysis are performed to infer the results.

It can be concluded that different manufacturing environments suffer different effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery. The product tardy delivery performance in make‐to‐order (MTO) manufacturing environment is found significantly affected by a wide range of underlying causes of uncertainty. It is interesting to find that mixed‐mode (MM) manufacturing environment has an opposite outcome. Correlation results provide significant evidence that underlying causes of uncertainty do not have linear association with product tardy delivery. This finding reinforces the proposition that the effects of uncertainty are difficult to quantify due to the compound effect. The cluster analyses of the business environmental factors of the manufacturing enterprises in MM, make‐to‐stock (MTS) and MTO environments found that size of enterprise, product variety, product complexity, number of parts, ratio of buy vs make parts, the use of rough‐cut capacity planning, and the use of buffering or dampening techniques in production, influence the effects of underlying causes of uncertainty on product tardy delivery.

Only UK manufacturing enterprises are investigated. The results will be relevant to MTO, MM and MTS manufacturing environments.

The application of the business model has provided useful knowledge to MM, MTS and MTO manufacturing enterprises on which underlying causes of uncertainty are significantly affecting their product tardy delivery performance.

A holistic approach such as the business model has given a solid foundation for the enterprises to evaluate their performance. Using the knowledge of significant underlying causes of uncertainty, the enterprises could then prioritise the effort and devise suitable buffering or dampening techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how uncertainty as a concept is being faced in many areas of work (including libraries). The use of scenario planning in managing this uncertainty is to be examined.

Reasons for the prominence of uncertainty are identified from the broad management literature. The impact uncertainty has on the organisation, and the individual and strategic direction is also discussed using the literature. This provides the context to establish how uncertainty, has historically been faced, by libraries. The same approach is applied when the application of scenario planning in managing uncertainty is established. Scenario planning is investigated at the wider level and then the focus moves to its relevance for libraries.

Uncertainty is a strategic concern for many organisations (both proffer and not for profit), which poses specific challenges for managers. It is caused by technological developments and changes in markets with other contributions from environmental, fiscal and political factors. Scenario planning is a proactive way to manage the impact of uncertainty. By using scenarios it is possible to identify key factors that will have serious implications in the future. Taking actions and informed decisions based upon the scenarios, future risks can be avoided and possible opportunities anticipated. Effective scenarios can be produced by going through an agreed group process.

The paper provides an examination of different aspects of uncertainty, its management through scenario planning and the relevance for libraries.

We introduce the concepts of information, uncertainty information, systems and uncertainty systems, analyze the intension of these concepts, and point out the differences and connections among various concepts of systems. We put forward a mathematical method to research uncertainty systems and present a problem that can be solved with our method but cannot be solved with the interval analyzing method. Otherwise, from analyzing the purpose of introducing the concepts of information, uncertainty information, systems and uncertainty systems, we conclude that uncertainty information and uncertainty systems are among the most important subjects studied in scientific research, especially in applied research, both that being presently conducted and the abundance which is to come in the future.

It is well known that the only way of making complexity in inductive (data‐driven) systems modelling manageable is to be tolerant of predictive (or retrodictive) uncertainty in the resulting models. It is argued that two complementary principles — the principles of maximum and minimum uncertainty — are essential to using uncertainty properly to combat complexity. When uncertainty is conceptualised in terms of probability theory, these principles become the well‐established principles of maximum and minimum entropy. When a more general framework of fuzzy measures is employed, uncertainty becomes a multi‐dimensional entity and the maximum and minimum uncertainty principles lead to optimisation problems with multiple objective criteria. Four distinct types of uncertainty are now recognised and their well‐justified measures determined within fuzzy set theory and one subset of fuzzy measures — the Dempster‐Shafer theory of evidence. The uncertainty types and their measures are briefly described.

This study explores resilience learning from uncertainty, taking a holistic view by considering individual, firm and contextual factors. Resilience development is understood by focusing on how uncertainty is related to entrepreneurs and their environment, suggesting that developing resilience needs to be a continuous learning process.

This qualitative study explores factors related to entrepreneurial uncertainty, resilience and learning. Evidence is drawn from interviews with rural entrepreneurs in two regions of Indonesia, and analyzed using a rigorous approach to generate codes, second-order themes and aggregate dimensions for the theoretical contributions.

Uncertainty readiness, uncertainty response and uncertainty opportunity for resilience emerge as the key learning areas from this study. They are related to resilience on a personal, community and systemic level. The proposed framework relates learning from uncertainty to the process of developing resilience for entrepreneurs and their communities.

This study proposes a framework based on resilience motivation and learning from uncertainty as usual. It explores the relationships between uncertainty readiness, responses and opportunities with personal, relational and systemic resilience factors. This contributes to entrepreneurship behavior research at the intersection of organization studies and management in the socio-economic and often informal context of developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which cultural differences and slogan meaning type affect the role of comprehension in attitude toward the ad (A_ad) and attitude toward the brand (A_brand) formation.

In an online experiment, a total of 256 adult participants from the USA (ranged in age from 19 to 26 years old) and 184 participants from France (ranged in age from 18 to 28) were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (slogan: single meaning vs polysemous) in a between-subjects experimental design. After getting exposed to the ad, participants responded to questions related to their A_ad, A_brand, comprehension, uncertainty avoidance and demographics.

Results from this research demonstrate the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance and slogan type (single meaning vs polysemous) on the relationship between comprehension and A_ad. The authors show that for polysemous (and not single meaning) slogans, comprehension results in more favorable A_ad for low uncertainty avoidance individuals than for high uncertainty avoidance individuals. In addition, the authors demonstrate the mediating effect of A_ad in the relationship between comprehension and A_brand.

The authors used nationality as a proxy for culture. Future research should include other cultural dimensions in the development of conceptual models and analysis of data. Another limitation is that the authors used a college student sample for this research. A more representative sample should be used in future research to examine cultural differences in interpreting adverting messages. One other limitation concerns the measurement tool the authors used to measure objective versus subjective comprehension in this research. While the theoretical foundations of the two modes of comprehension are clear and robust, improved measurement tools can enhance the validity and reliability of future research. Finally, the authors suggest that future research examine the effect of such variables as figure-ground contrast, figure attractiveness, stimulus repetition, prototypicality, symmetry and semantic or visual priming that may impact the processing of brand slogans.

This study argues that the processing of brand slogans in advertising is impacted by culture. Individuals from different cultures perceive and comprehend brand slogans differently. This study contributes to the research stream that examines the influence of cultural dimensions on the effectiveness of advertising by focusing more precisely on the impact of uncertainty avoidance (one of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions). In the case of single meaning slogans, advertisers might diminish the use of objective comprehension advertising strategies to influence both individuals with high and low uncertainty avoidance. In the case of polysemous slogans, advertisers should consider that consumers with high uncertainty avoidance (vs low uncertainty avoidance) are impacted more by subjective comprehension (vs objective comprehension) when forming A_ad and A_brand.

This research contributes meaningfully to the marketing literature by examining previous work on ad slogan processing through subjective vs objective comprehension and extending the analysis by incorporating culture as an important factor.