bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Research on the relationship between clothing pressure developed by women's basketball sports bra and heart rate variation indexes
Authors: Yan Yuxiu , Gao Jie , Jin Zimin , Tao Jianwei
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between dynamic clothing pressure of women's sports bras and heart rate variation indexes during playing basketball.

Design/methodology/approach

– Totally, 35 healthy females aged between 20 and 24 were employed as subjects. Their heart rate variability (HRV) data and the clothing pressure values when wearing sports bras of different bust sizes during playing basketball were measured using Polar RS800CX heart rate monitor and Flexi Force201 thin film type pressure sensor with MFF series pressure test system. Their subjective comfort evaluations were conducted by five-point Likert scale. Grey correlation analysis is used to determine the correlation degree of heart rate variation indexes and subjective comfort evaluations to identify the indexes preferably associated with subjective comfort. Multiple regression analysis is applied to investigate multiple correlations between pressure of test points and the indexes selected above.

Findings

– Combined subjective comfort evaluation with objective HRV evaluation the heart rate variation indexes preferably associated with subjective comfort of these bras were identified, which includes mHR, mRR, RMSSD, pNN50. By the relationship between dynamic clothing pressure and the indexes above, this study finds that the clothing pressure of the chest area during basketball exercise should be controlled in the range of 2.01-4.74 kPa.

Research limitations/implications

– The subjects of different body type should be taken into account. Further, the mathematic models from this study show low R2-value so the models should be provided more reliable prediction.

Originality/value

– The present study indicates that there is an inevitable connection between heart rate variation indexes and subjective comfort of basketball sports bras and creatively points out that heart rate variation indexes can partly assess the comfortable clothing pressure. The study can offer theoretical basis for sports apparel industry to develop the comfortable basketball sports bra.
Heterogeneous transfer learning for activity recognition using heuristic search techniques
Authors: Dillon Feuz Kyle , J. Cook Diane
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to study heterogeneous transfer learning for activity recognition using heuristic search techniques. Many pervasive computing applications require information about the activities currently being performed, but activity recognition algorithms typically require substantial amounts of labeled training data for each setting. One solution to this problem is to leverage transfer learning techniques to reuse available labeled data in new situations.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper introduces three novel heterogeneous transfer learning techniques that reverse the typical transfer model and map the target feature space to the source feature space and apply them to activity recognition in a smart apartment. This paper evaluates the techniques on data from 18 different smart apartments located in an assisted-care facility and compares the results against several baselines.

Findings

– The three transfer learning techniques are all able to outperform the baseline comparisons in several situations. Furthermore, the techniques are successfully used in an ensemble approach to achieve even higher levels of accuracy.

Originality/value

– The techniques in this paper represent a considerable step forward in heterogeneous transfer learning by removing the need to rely on instance – instance or feature – feature co-occurrence data.
Eco-Innovation – does additional engagement lead to additional rewards?
Authors: Doran Justin , Ryan Geraldine
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– Eco-innovation is any form of product, process or organisational innovation that contributes towards sustainable development. Firms can eco-innovate in a variety of ways. The purpose of this paper is to identify nine different eco-innovation activities – including such items as reducing material use per unit of output, reducing energy use per unit of output, reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) “footprint” – and the authors ask whether these act as substitutes or complements to one another.

Design/methodology/approach

– Eco-innovation is any form of product, process or organisational innovation that contributes towards sustainable development. Firms can eco-innovate in a variety of ways. In this paper the authors identify nine different eco-innovation activities – including such items as reducing material use per unit of output, reducing energy use per unit of output, reducing CO2 “footprint” – and the authors ask whether these act as substitutes or complements to one another.

Findings

– Introducing only one eco-innovation activity has little payoff (in terms of turnover per worker) with only those firms who reduce their CO2 “footprint” having higher levels of turnover per worker. When introducing more than one eco-innovation activity the authors find that certain eco-innovation activities complement one another (e.g. reducing material use within the firm at the same time as improving the ability to recycle the product after use) others act as substitutes (e.g. reducing material use within the firm at the same time as recycling waste, water or materials within the firm).

Practical implications

– The results suggest that firms can maximise their productive capacity by considering specific combinations of eco-innovation. This suggests that firms should plan to introduce eco-innovation which act as complements, thereby, boosting productivity. It also suggests that eco-innovation stimuli, introduced by policy makers, should be targeted at complementary eco-innovations.

Originality/value

– The paper analyses whether eco-innovations act as complements or substitutes. While a number of studies have analysed the importance of eco-innovation for firm performance, few have assessed the extent to which diverse types of eco-innovation interact with each other to complement or substitute for one another.
Production and scale efficiency of maize farming households in South-Western Nigeria
Authors: Karimov Aziz , Amoke Awotide Bola , Timothy Amos Taiwo
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to estimate production and scale efficiency of maize producing farms in South-Western Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study is based on a semi-parametric approach and uses a combination of econometrics and linear programming to build two stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model.

Findings

– Model findings shows existence of production and scale inefficiencies in maize production. The study concludes that there is still room for efficiency improvements in the existence of the current maize production technology. It also finds several socio-economic variables such as, off-farm work, education, extension services and credit, which positively impact on technical efficiency of farm households.

Practical implications

– Efficiency indicators could be used to monitor resource use efficiency in crop production by local government.

Social implications

– Efficiency improvements will increase maize production in the country which in turn reduce social unrest and food insecurity.

Originality/value

– This study is one of the first which has employed DEA approach to analyze maize productivity and pioneer in using non-traditional bootstrapping approach to obtain robust efficiency scores in the case of Nigeria.
Analysis of automobile repeat-purchase behaviour on CRM
Authors: Kim Juyoung , Suk Kim Myung
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to suggest a method of selecting efficient customer service programmes and of providing relevant customer information to dealers, based on the analysis of repeat-purchase behaviour data in the automobile industry.

Design/methodology/approach

– A recurrent event model is proposed and employed to determine which variables affect repurchasing behaviour in consumers' repurchase cycles. Unlike the conventional recurrent event model, the proposed model uses common variables for all strata, as well as stratum-specific variables.

Findings

– Empirical results show that age, price difference, change in vehicle type, and marketing promotion affect the likelihood of repeat purchase. VIP service centres and repair services are effective marketing tools, and dealers should pay more attention to existing customers having certain characteristics, depending on prior purchase behaviour.

Practical implications

– Though many customer service programmes are devised and implemented at great cost, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data reveal that classic car-care services are the most essential. CRM can provide dealers with essential customer information that enables real purchases.

Originality/value

– Collecting primary data on automobile purchase behaviour and customer service usage is difficult, and therefore, customer behaviour strategy is often formulated using basic principles alone. The paper proposes a method to construct a service strategy and formulate deal guidelines based on CRM data and statistical modelling.
ICT service providers strategies and customer migration
Authors: Lee Sang-Gun , Trimi Silvana , Yang Chang-Gyu
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ICT service providers’ strategies affect customer migration.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using a simulation approach and the agent-based model, this research explores how an incremental technology affects customer migration and changes the market structure.

Findings

– The authors found that a strategy of disruptive technology innovation not only helps a follower company increase its market share, but it also completely disrupts the market.

Originality/value

– This study investigates customer migration patterns in the saturated mobile telecommunication market based on service providers’ strategies.
Service convergence and service integration in medical tourism
Authors: Wernz Christian , Thakur Wernz Pooja , Phusavat Kongkiti
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the concepts of service convergence and service integration, illustrate them in the context of the medical tourism industry, and link them to factors that contributed to the success of a medical tourism firm.

Design/methodology/approach

– The basis for the conceptual development of service convergence and service integration is an in-depth case study of Bumrungrad International Hospital (BIH) in Thailand. Based on semi-structured interviews and archival data, BIH's business model is analyzed and factors are identified that led to its success in the industry.

Findings

– BIH's success can be attributed to nine key initiatives that enhanced customer focus, operational efficiency, and service quality. These initiatives supported BIH's twofold business model of product differentiation and globally competitive prices. The firm's activities led to the integration of medical and hospitality services resulting in a new, enhanced product. Competitors adopted BIH's service integration approach, which started the service convergence trend in the medical tourism industry.

Research limitations/implications

– The conceptual foundations for service convergence and service integration are laid in this paper and can serve as the basis for future research.

Practical implications

– Insights from BIH's business model can guide firms in medical tourism and related industries on how to innovate and how to successfully implement their service products.

Originality/value

– This paper introduces the term service convergence and discusses its mechanisms. Furthermore, it identifies success factors of a leading firm in the medical tourism industry and links them to service integration.
The long run industrial growth of Veracruz state, 1955-2008
Authors: Brock Gregory J.
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– Has the Mexican inter-regional growth and convergence experience also occurred within single regions? Using the important southern region of Veracruz, the purpose of this paper is to examine this question over a 48-year period within a single Mexican state.

Design/methodology/approach

– Growth is examined using a standard two input stochastic production function (SPF) that creates a measure of technical efficiency. Convergence is measured using a convergence equation from the literature but which also included the results from the SPF analysis to incorporate not only initial levels of inputs but also the ability of a municipio to utilize these inputs. Data collection in Mexico and online included a long run database of 149 municipios in Veracruz from 1960 thru 2008.

Findings

– A stochastic Cobb-Douglas technology is found to fit the long run growth of Veracruz province well. In the 1960s, 2000s and the long run (1960-2008), weak evidence for the municipios in Veracruz appear to be converging with a relatively higher level of technical efficiency resulting in slower growth of industrial labor productivity is found. Some very recent improvement in technical efficiency may be the result of institutional as well as economic reforms finally allowing an exiting of inefficient firms that has kept the levels of municipio industrial technical efficiency stagnant for decades at about 70 percent.

Research limitations/implications

– Data were limited to 149 municipios because of the need to track long run trends. Data were also limited by the need to use what was available in 1960 in a direct comparison with 2008. The design of the study was to use the technical efficiency index as a proxy for much of the missing data on institutions in the historic period. Panel data were used because the economic census is not done every year plus the turmoil in the Mexican economy in the 1980s thru the end of the 1990s make imputation of missing years at the local level quite difficult.

Practical implications

– The paper provides a baseline to analyze the long run intra-regional economic growth of other Mexican states which have a large number of municipios. It begins the exciting possibility of looking at Mexican long run growth from the municipio level which has historically played an important role in Mexico.

Originality/value

– This is the first study to examine long run growth within a Mexican state at the municipio level using both the production function and convergence literature. Results suggest several avenues for further research inside Veracruz and across Mexico.
Fiscal externalities in a three-tier structure of government
Authors: Kappeler Andreas
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– Federal systems are often more sophisticated than assumed in the literature. In many cases, at least three tiers of government are involved in federal decision making. The purpose of this paper is to cast some light on this increasingly important issue in fiscal federalism.

Design/methodology/approach

– In a model with three tiers of government, the author analyzes corrective policies in the presence of fiscal externalities generated by federal redistribution.

Findings

– The author identifies an additional qualitative incentive effect, particularly for intermediate governments. They behave strategically to attract additional redistribution funds from outside, though still using corrective policies to provide investment incentives toward their own regions. The results also suggest that differently from the USA the federal system of the EU may lead to inefficiently low regional investment.

Originality/value

– The presented model is a first step toward analyzing strategic behavior and the effect of corrective policies in more complicated federal set ups with three tiers of government involved. This is relevant for federal structures such as Germany or the USA, as well as for government interactions at the international level.
Noise traders and the rational investors: a comparison of the 1990s and the 2000s
Authors: Kholdy Shady , Sohrabian Ahmad
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the effect of individual and institutional sentiments on the US stock returns during a prolonged bull phase of ten years in the 1990s compared to shorter boom and bust cycles of the 2000s. The study is focussed on a set of stocks that are prone to sentiments and speculations.

Design/methodology/approach

– To compare the dynamic interaction of individual and institutional sentiments and stock returns, the authors use the vector autoregression (VAR) approach. The VAR model has proven to be especially useful for describing the dynamic behavior of economic and financial time series because it does not impose a priori restriction on the structure of the system. Using impulse response function, the authors determine how stock returns respond over time to a shock in institutional and individual sentiments.

Findings

– The authors find that sentiments of individual investors can affect returns mostly when there is a prolonged upward trend in stock prices, while sentiments of institutional investors can impact the returns when stock market is more volatile.

Originality/value

– This paper compares the effect of noise traders and rational investors’ sentiment on stock returns during the persistent period of positive abnormal returns of the 1990s and the more volatile stock returns of the 2000s.
Measuring the social capabilities and the implication on innovation
Authors: de Felice Annunziata
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to seek to develop a rigorous analysis of social capabilities (SC) and measuring them in a special industrial cluster, considering the key role of knowledge and SC in innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper sets off from the definition of SC and the elements that characterize them in an industrial cluster. The focus also examines how it is possible to measure SC within a specific area, using the scoreboard approach. The empirical aspect remains based upon the original results of surveys conducted on a sample of entrepreneurs specializing in a special industrial cluster utilizing a multi-method approach and the paper presents the empirical analysis estimating an innovation equation.

Findings

– The results of the case study show that the relationship between SC and innovation does not only involve large enterprises but small- and medium-sized businesses as well.

Originality/value

– Measuring SC is very complex since not all the highlighted determinants can be subject to empirical verification and given that they are intangible elements, residual and often incorporated into tacit knowledge and a literature that can help us in defining and measuring them accurately is not always available for all the indicators. In this research the author proposes a measure of SC using a composite indicator and investigates the effective role of these inputs in stimulating innovative activity in an industrial cluster performance.
An evaluation of the revenue side as a source of fiscal consolidation in high debt economies
Authors: Banerjee Ritwik
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– Unsustainable levels of debt in some European economies are causing enormous strain in the Euro area. Successful debt consolidation in high-debt economies is the single most important objective for the European policy makers. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– The author uses a dynamic general equilibrium closed economy model to compute the dynamic Laffer curves for Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain for different class of taxes. The general equilibrium effects of the interaction of labor tax, consumption tax and capital tax is demonstrated.

Findings

– Location of each economy on its Laffer curve suggests that there exists a scope for considerable revenue generation by raising consumption and labor tax rates but no such possibilities exist for capital tax rate. Thus revenue generation with certain tax rates as instruments, holds key to successful and sustained debt reduction.

Originality/value

– This to the best of knowledge is one of the first papers which looks closely at the tax revenue – tax rate panel for the major deeply indebted European economies.
Staff attitudes towards young people in looked after accommodation
Authors: Copley Jennifer , Johnson Dan , Bain Stella
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– To consider the power of psychological well-being, empathy and coping style in predicting staff attitudes towards young people in looked after accommodation, involved in or at risk of offending behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to understand more about staff attitudes which have a significant role in the care and rehabilitation of this client group.

Design/methodology/approach

– Psychological well-being, empathy and coping style are discussed in terms of their impact on attitudes towards young people. The predictive power of each factor is considered using multiple regression analysis of participants’ responses on an adapted version of the Attitudes to Prisoners (ATP) scale, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Coping Styles Questionnaire (CSQ).

Findings

– Multiple regression analyses showed that empathic concern (affective empathy) was the only factor predictive of attitudes towards young people. The paper discusses the applied implications for employers, including the possibility of empathy training for staff members and highlights the need for further consideration of the factors impacting on staff attitudes.

Practical implications

– The outcome suggests that empathy may serve as a protective factor against the development of negative attitudes. This highlights the importance of fostering staff empathy and the possible use of empathy training.

Originality/value

– The research findings question the robustness of the relationships between staff psychological well-being, empathy, coping styles and attitudes towards their client group. The outcome suggests that empathy may serve as a protective factor against the development of negative attitudes.
Functional illiteracy and neurocognitive deficits among male prisoners: implications for rehabilitation
Authors: Tuominen Tiina , Korhonen Tapio , Hämäläinen Heikki , Temonen Satu , Salo Helena , Katajisto Jouko , Lauerma Hannu
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of the academic skills deficits in male offenders and their relation to neurocognitive deficits.

Design/methodology/approach

– In total, 72 Finnish male prisoners were tested with regard to reading, spelling, and mathematical abilities.

Findings

– Low academic skills, especially reading, were related to poor neurocognitive performance in verbal memory, visual memory, attention, and motor dexterity. The results showed a high number (29-36 percent) of reading and spelling disorders. In all, 15 percent of those with medium to severe problems in academic skills had marked difficulties in mathematics. In total, 88 percent of the participants with at least one problem area in literacy skills had neurocognitive deficits. In the present study, the pervasive neurocognitive deficits, occurring comorbidly with reading and spelling difficulties, seem to refer to a fundamental set of deficits which are only minimally explained by IQ, educational background or training.

Research limitations/implications

– Reading and spelling difficulties could be seen as functional illiteracy which, combined with a broad spectrum of neuropsychological function deficits, pose a challenging task for rehabilitation. Only after proper identification of deficits has been achieved is it possible to set goals and select the appropriate means for rehabilitation. One obvious limitation is the moderate number of subjects (n=72).

Practical implications

– It may not be enough just to train reading or develop literacy activities among prisoners; focussing intervention on comprehensive neurocognitive deficits is also necessary.

Originality/value

– Correlates and comorbidity between academic difficulties and neurocognitive deficits among offenders, especially in arithmetic difficulties, have been less studied.
Trouble with tacit: developing a new perspective and approach
Authors: Crane Lesley , Bontis Nick
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to question the widely adopted tacit-explicit distinction of knowledge, arguing that this is based on a misappraisal of the original source of the “tacit” phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach

– It is argued that Michael Polanyi’s theory of personal knowledge and philosophical grounds have been misinterpreted. The tacit problem is approached from three different directions: knowledge management, cognitive psychology and discursive psychology. The first offers an imperative to regard the tacit as vital to organizational success and an underplayed “implicit” perspective on the tacit. The second offers empirical evidence for the formulation of the tacit as acquired automatically and unconsciously through implicit learning and as influencing action. The last offers a theory and methodology for studying what is argued as being the primary site of knowledge work – discourse.

Findings

– A novel aspect of the tacit – “tacit knowing” – is shown to be action-orientated and influential, and while it is a hidden aspect of a person’s knowledge, it can be revealed through the study and analysis of discourse.

Originality/value

– This is the first known paper in the extant literature to examine the tacit knowledge challenge from these combined directions. Implications for practice and study are discussed, and new directions for research proposed.
Transformational leadership and post-acquisition performance in transitional economies
Authors: M. Babić Verica , D. Savović Slađjana , M. Domanović Violeta
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships between transformational leadership and post-acquisition performance, introducing into the analysis the mediating effect of employee attitudes toward changes, in the specific context of a transitional economy.

Design/methodology/approach

– The data were collected from 208 employees (including 91 managers) from ten acquired companies in Serbia. Using exploratory factor analysis, two dimensions of transformational leadership were identified in the context of a transitional economy: the first one refers to inspiring and stimulating the employees, and the second dimension refers to responding to employee problems. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

– The results of the analysis indicate that inspiring and stimulating employees has an indirect impact on post-acquisition performance through the mediating effect of employee attitudes toward changes, whereas responding to employee problems has both direct and indirect impacts on post-acquisition performance.

Practical implications

– The results of study may be significant for managers involved in the processes of mergers and acquisitions and may aid them in obtaining adequate levels of employee commitment and trust, which are needed to achieve challenging goals and to improve post-acquisition performance.

Originality/value

– The research of the mediating effect of employee attitudes on post-acquisition performance contributes to a better understanding of the relationships between transformational leadership and post-acquisition performance. Research in transitional economies related to subject matter is limited, while in Serbia in particular, there is no prior empirical work on the impact of transformational leadership on post-acquisition performance.
Leaders’ commitment to change and their effectiveness in change – a multilevel investigation
Authors: Abrell-Vogel Carolin , Rowold Jens
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– Followers’ affective commitment to change has been found to constitute a strong predictor of the success of change initiatives in organizations. Several studies have yet shown positive effects of transformational leadership on followers’ commitment to change. However, up to date there is no study examining the direct effects of different transformational leadership behaviors on followers’ commitment to change and the moderating impact of leaders’ commitment to change on these relationships. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study uses a cross-sectional, multilevel design based on multisource date from 38 teams from different organizations with a total of 177 participating team members. Data of leaders’ and followers’ commitment to change as well as ratings of transformational leadership behavior were captured applying a quantitative approach.

Findings

– Results show a significant positive effect of the transformational leadership behavior “individual support” on followers’ affective commitment toward change. Moreover, the transformational leadership behavior “providing an appropriate model” was shown as only positively contributing to followers’ commitment to change when leaders’ own commitment toward change was high.

Research limitations/implications

– Due to the multilevel and multisource data, the sample is relatively small which limits the external validity of findings. Also, future studies should invest in longitudinal replication of relationships. Research on leaders’ and followers’ commitment to change should continue to develop more complete models of interacting influence factors.

Practical implications

– For team leaders and organizations, results underline the importance of individual support of team members. Thus, leaders need to be enabled to invest individual leadership in the long run. Also, leaders need to become aware of their own commitment toward the change and, going beyond, need to develop a positive bond to the change if they want to be able to act as successful role models.

Originality/value

– This paper contributes to existing literature by offering a more detailed insight for researchers and practitioners into the effectiveness of transformational leadership in change by exploring the impact of different transformational leadership behaviors effecting followers’ commitment to change. Moreover, it provides important knowledge about the relevance of leaders’ own commitment to change as a moderator of effective leadership in change.
Organizational creativity diluted: a critical appraisal of discursive practices in academic research
Authors: Blomberg Annika
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the discursive practices employed in academic research on organizational creativity through a critical lens.

Design/methodology/approach

– The literature on organizational creativity is reviewed from a discourse-theoretical perspective and three groupings of dominant discursive practices are identified. The theoretical and practical implications of the practices are discussed, and other potential aspects of creativity that appear to have been neglected or suppressed in the discourse are further examined.

Findings

– The dominant discursive practices in the organizational creativity research contribute to the building of a simplified and one-sided picture of organizational creativity; a stripped-down and diluted version that is more easily achievable and manageable, and leads to positive outcomes. Failure to recognize its inherent complexities reduces the value of creativity as an organizational asset.

Originality/value

– The findings contribute to the organizational creativity research in recognizing a range of dominant practices that appear to promote the dilution of the concept. Although the diluted and stripped-down version of organizational creativity suits the managerial agenda and complies with organizational discourse, it fails as an organizational asset, which should be about embracing the unconventional and risky, and taking advantage of change.
Strategy formation in the innovation and market domain: emergent or deliberate?
Authors: Leitner Karl-Heinz
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to study the nature of the strategy formation and its impact on firm performance in relation to market development and product innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

– The paper is based on an empirical study of 91 Austrian SMEs which covers a time period of ten years. Strategy formation was captured by an analysis of strategic intentions and corresponding actions in two surveys carried out in 1995 and 2003.

Findings

– The study finds no direct association between strategy formation and performance, though, emergent strategists had less often a growth orientation. Taking into account industry dynamics, shows, contrary to our expectations, that companies which employed an emergent market development strategy achieved higher sales growth in stable than in dynamic industries.

Originality/value

– The question of the superiority of planned vs emergent strategies has a long debate in strategy formation literature. The authors contribute to this question by investigating the role of different information sources for the formation of market and product innovation strategies and its impact on the performance in different environments over a ten-year time period.
Second-order error; error that illuminates context
Authors: Krueger Ted
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel classification of errors.

Design/methodology/approach

– A review of the classification of errors in several disciplines is undertaken.

Findings

– The role of errors in the delineation of the frameworks in which they occur is suggested.
Overcoming obstacles in learning cybernetic psychology
Authors: Baron Philip
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– When reviewing the prospectus of mainstream universities that offer psychology majors, one would be hard-pressed to find any cybernetic approaches included in their course material. This is an unfortunate observation as most psychological problems arise in a relational context. Reasons for this status quo are presented. The purpose of this paper is to reduce obstacles for prospective learners in cybernetic psychology, with the hope that cybernetic psychology may be assimilated and seen as an equal footing paradigm in mainstream psychology teachings.

Design/methodology/approach

– A popular cybernetics web site is often used by students who are learning cybernetic psychology. Using the responses from students who frequent the online resource, solutions are presented based on the questions that students have asked the author of the site.

Findings

– Students are taught different therapy paradigms in terms of models; the psychodynamic model, the medical model, the person-centred model; the systems model and so forth. Their position to the model is external and they can critically evaluate the different models and apply each model in an interpretation and analysis of various psychology case studies. Cybernetic psychology becomes problematic when that line of thinking is used.

Practical implications

– Cybernetic psychology stands as an ethical choice for therapy. Reducing the boundaries for cybernetic therapies to be assimilated in the mainstream context, especially if offered by universities as an equal footing paradigm, which would be in keeping with the WHO's call for responsible ethical therapy interventions.

Originality/value

– There is limited information on how to perform cybernetic psychology. This is understandable owing to the nature of cybernetics; however, reliable and stable approaches should still be available for students who are new to this epistemology. There needs to be an entering point into this way of thinking so that cybernetic psychology remains accessible to newcomers.
Understanding and learning to reconcile differences between disciplines through constructing an artificial personality
Authors: Kadri Faisal L
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the conflicting varieties between cognitive linguistics and animal motivation on one hand and between emotions and motivations on another, and to show how the construction of an artificial personality led to understanding the differences from a cybernetic perspective, and to reconcile and benefit from them.

Design/methodology/approach

– The design of the artificial personality is built on a core of dual regulator structure as a model of motivation and cognition. The regulating core does not address areas of linguistics and emotions, thus the need to interface with functions from well-researched disciplines in these areas as peripheries to the core. Different disciplines were viewed from a cybernetic perspective, where the variety of categories primarily used in these disciplines was compared numerically and the problem was defined as a search for methods to reducing the varieties between disciplines.

Findings

– The interfaces between the core of artificial personality and the peripheries are seen as either regulators, which reduce variety, or generators of variety.

Originality/value

– The approach to reconcile cross-disciplinary differences based on comparing the numerical variety of categories is understood to be original. The reduction of comparison to numerical counts removes hard-to-reconcile qualitative differences and retains the simplicity of quantitative differences. Qualitative cross-disciplinary differences benefit the specialists and protect them from competition with each other. By reconciling cross-disciplinary differences the artificial personality develops across disciplines and achieves multi-disciplinary transparency. The specialists may not welcome the competition but science, technology and society in general will benefit from reduced duplication, improved information flow and integration. This work is a small step in understanding and learning to reconcile differences between disciplines.
Understanding, action, and the use of the cane in Sri Lankan schools
Authors: Kannangara Chathurika Sewwandi , Griffiths David
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to consider the use of corporal punishment in schools in Sri Lanka, and to offer reflections on how cybernetics could shed light on its persistence despite initiatives to ban it.

Design/methodology/approach

– The ASC 2013 Heinz von Foerster Award for the most significant contribution to the conference was awarded following discussion of the use of the cane in Sri Lankan schools. This paper provides a personal account of difficulties in overcoming the use of corporal punishment in a school in Sri Lanka.

Findings

– The Sri Lankan education system is introduced. The response of the ASC 2013 is discussed. The feedback between social forces and the education system is seen as being too complex for analysis, and Bateson's conception of ethos is proposed as an appropriate starting point for making progress on this issue.

Social implications

– The use of corporal punishment has been forbidden by the Ministry of Education, but the practice evidently continues and there is evidence that this has negative impact on young people. The paper offers an approach to understanding the reasons for the prevalence and persistence of corporal punishment, as a first step towards designing measures to eliminate it.

Originality/value

– The paper takes a new approach to understanding the persistence of corporal punishment in Sri Lanka by applying Bateson's concepts of ethos and schismogenesis.
Triple-loop learning and conversing with reality
Authors: Reynolds Martin
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– Three levels of learning developed by Gregory Bateson in the tradition of second-order cybernetics have in-part been translated in terms of double-loop and triple-loop learning (TLL), particularly in the tradition of systems thinking. Learning III and TLL have gained less popularity since they deal with less tangible issues regarding virtues of wisdom and justice, respectively. The purpose of this paper is to provide a learning device – the systems thinking in practice (STiP) heuristic – which helps to retrieve the cybernetic concern for wisdom in association with an often forgotten systems concern for real-world power relations.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using “conversation” as a metaphor the heuristic is introduced based on three orders of conversation. Drawing on ideas of systemic triangulation, another heuristic device – the systemic triangulator – is used to surface issues of power in the three orders of conversation. Some manifestations in using the STiP heuristic for supporting postgraduate systems learning are demonstrated.

Findings

– Some key complementarities between conventionally opaque cybernetic issues of wisdom and systems issues of power are revealed, and used proactively to explore more effective coaching of STiP.

Research limitations/implications

– Cybernetics and systems thinking may benefit from being grounded more in understanding, engaging with, and transforming social realities. The heuristics provide practical experiential and meaningful learning through conversation, and more social premium for the study of cybernetics and systems thinking.

Originality/value

– The heuristics – STiP, and the systemic triangulator – provides an innovative cyber-systemic space for learning and action.
A genetic programming hyper-heuristic for the multidimensional knapsack problem
Authors: Drake John H , Hyde Matthew , Ibrahim Khaled , Ozcan Ender
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– Hyper-heuristics are a class of high-level search techniques which operate on a search space of heuristics rather than directly on a search space of solutions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the suitability of using genetic programming as a hyper-heuristic methodology to generate constructive heuristics to solve the multidimensional 0-1 knapsack problem

Design/methodology/approach

– Early hyper-heuristics focused on selecting and applying a low-level heuristic at each stage of a search. Recent trends in hyper-heuristic research have led to a number of approaches being developed to automatically generate new heuristics from a set of heuristic components. A population of heuristics to rank knapsack items are trained on a subset of test problems and then applied to unseen instances.

Findings

– The results over a set of standard benchmarks show that genetic programming can be used to generate constructive heuristics which yield human-competitive results.

Originality/value

– In this work the authors show that genetic programming is suitable as a method to generate reusable constructive heuristics for the multidimensional 0-1 knapsack problem. This is classified as a hyper-heuristic approach as it operates on a search space of heuristics rather than a search space of solutions. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the literature a GP hyper-heuristic has been used to solve the multidimensional 0-1 knapsack problem. The results suggest that using GP to evolve ranking mechanisms merits further future research effort.
Effects of variety reduction and amplification in circular feedback systems
Authors: Fischer Thomas
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present the result of an experiment examining the effects of changing input and output channel variety in an optical feedback system and their potential to give rise to novelty, as some non-trivial systems do.

Design/methodology/approach

– The experimental design is based on a digital computer connected to a digital photo camera (input channel), and to a monitor screen (output channel). The camera is pointed at the monitor to form a circular feedback system. Monitor and camera resolutions constitute the variable input and output variety of the system, allowing the visual investigation of effects of variety reduction and variety amplification in circular feedback systems.

Findings

– Results suggest that variety amplification in input and/or output channels promotes the emergence of discernible novelty in the apparent absence of a creative/generative capability or agenda within the recursive system.

Research limitations/implications

– An analogy between an optical feedback system and human novelty generation is shown, while generalisability of observations made beyond the described experiment remains to be established.

Originality/value

– A new approach to the computational modelling of aspects of human creativity is presented. Photographic investigation of variety reduction and variety amplification is new, and hoped to be of value to those wishing to examine these theoretical concepts in concrete terms.
An approach to hesitant fuzzy multi-stage multi-criterion decision making
Authors: Liao Huchang , Xu Zeshui , Xu Jiuping
Published: November 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to develop some weight determining methods for hesitant fuzzy multi-criterion decision making (MCDM) in which the preference information on attributes is collected over different periods.

Design/methodology/approach

– Based on the proposed weight determining methods and dynamic hesitant fuzzy aggregation operators, an approach is developed to solve the hesitant fuzzy multi-stage multi-attribute decision-making problem where all the preference information of attributes over different periods is represented in hesitant fuzzy values.

Findings

– In order to determine the weights associated with dynamic hesitant fuzzy operators, the authors propose the improved maximum entropy method and the minimum average deviation method.

Research limitations/implications

– This paper does not consider the multi-stage multi-criteria group decision-making problem.

Practical implications

– An example concerning the evaluation of rangelands is given to illustrate the validation and efficiency of the proposed approach. It should be stated that the proposed approach can also be implemented into other multi-stage MCDM problems.

Originality/value

– The concept of hesitant fuzzy variable (HFV) is defined. Some operational laws and properties of the HFVs are given. Moreover, to fuse the multi-stage hesitant fuzzy information, the aggregation operators of hesitant fuzzy sets are extended to that of the HFVs.