Determining Six Sigma success factors in Turkey by using structural equation modeling

Since it includes strong statistical and executive techniques, Six Sigma (SS) succeeded in many countries and different sectors. Especially successful SS applications of many international companies have increased the interest of other companies. As a result of this, the number of implemented SS projects in various countries has increased. Although successful SS projects are often in mind, the number of failed projects because of various reasons is not as low as to be ignored. As well as there are many factors that affect the success level of SS projects, and these factors vary according to countries. In this study, a survey was applied to 117 people who have 1 of SS belts in order to determine success levels of the SS projects in Turkey. By using explanatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, critical success factors were determined. According to the results, project selection and its scope, quality culture and defining and measuring of metrics were determined as the top factors that are affecting success levels of SS projects applied in Turkey. The results of the study were also compared with the results of similar projects implemented in other countries.     

Human Capital Outflow and Economic Misery: Fresh Evidence for Pakistan

This paper visits the impact of economic misery on human capital outflow using time series data over the period of 1975–2012. We have applied the combined cointegration tests and innovation accounting approach to examine long run and causal relationship between the variables. Our results affirm the presence of cointegration between the variables. We find that economic misery increases human capital outflow. Foreign remittances add in human capital outflow from Pakistan. The migration from Pakistan to rest of world is boosted by depreciation in local currency. Income inequality is also a major contributor to human capital outflow. The present study is comprehensive effort and may provide new insights to policy makers for handling the issue of human capital outflow by controlling economic misery in Pakistan.

     

Comparison between Bayesian approach and frequentist methods for estimating relative risk in randomized controlled trials: a simulation study

Relative risks (RRs) are often considered as preferred measures of association in randomized controlled trials especially when the binary outcome of interest is common. To directly estimate RRs, log-binomial regression has been recommended. Although log-binomial regression is a special case of generalized linear models, it does not respect the natural parameter constraints, and maximum likelihood estimation is often subject to numerical instability that leads to convergence problems. Alternative methods for solving log-binomial regression convergence problems have been proposed. A Bayesian approach also was introduced, but the comparison between this method and frequentist methods has not been fully explored. We compared five frequentist and one Bayesian methods for estimating RRs under a variety of scenario. Based on our simulation study, there is not a method that can perform well based on different statistical properties, but COPY 1000 and modified log-Poisson regression can be considered in practice.     

A recursive approach for lot sentencing problem in the presence of inspection errors

In this paper, a new sequential acceptance sampling plans in the presence of inspection errors is developed. A suitable profit objective function is employed for optimizing the lot sentencing problem. A backward recursive approach is applied for obtaining the profit of different decisions in each stage of sampling. Required probabilities are obtained using Bayesian rule. A case study is solved for illustrating the application of proposed models and sensitivity analysis are carried out on the parameters of the proposed methodologies and the behaviour of models by changing the parameters are investigated.     

Place attachment in disaster studies: measurement and the case of the 2013 Moore tornado

Population and Environment - Place attachment has gained considerable attention in disaster studies, though there is little consensus on how to conceptualize or measure this construct in...     

The impact of female education on fertility: a natural experiment from Egypt

This paper presents new evidence on the impact of female education on fertility in Egypt using the change in the length of primary schooling as the source of exogenous variation in education. Beginning in 1988, the Egyptian government cut the number of primary school years from six to five, moving from a 12-year system of pre-university education to an 11-year system. This policy change affected all individuals born on or after October 1977. Using triennial pooled cross-section data from 1992 to 2014 and a nonparametric regression discontinuity approach, we compare education and fertility of women born just before and right after October 1977. Our analysis shows that female education significantly reduces the number of children born per woman. The reduction in fertility seems to result from delaying maternal age rather than changing women’s fertility preferences. We also provide evidence that female education in Egypt does not boost women’s labor force participation or affect their usages of contraceptive methods. Female education, however, does appear to increase women’s age at marriage which might explain the delay of maternal age.     

The Effect of Microcredit on Women Empowerment in Welfare and Decisions Making in Malaysia

Microcredit is perceived as an effective tool to empower women, especially those who are deprived of accessing financial services. However, the literature has arrived with contradictory evidence and demonstrates that the effect of microcredit may partially or not empower women. This study intends to examine whether the access to Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) affects several aspects of empowerment in urban Malaysia. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to 474 old and new clients to examine the effect of microcredit on women empowerment in decision-making process and resource controlling. Based on the propensity score matching, our result shows that the access to AIM microcredit affects positively women’s monthly income. In addition, microcredit empowers women borrowers in a set of household decisions making including mobility, daily expenditure, children school, health expenditure and loan order decision.     

A simple approach to analyzing clustered longitudinal data

When modeling correlated binary data in the presence of informative cluster sizes, generalized estimating equations with either resampling or inverse-weighting, are often used to correct for estimation bias. However, existing methods for the clustered longitudinal setting assume constant cluster sizes over time. We present a subject-weighted generalized estimating equations scheme that provides valid parameter estimation for the clustered longitudinal setting while allowing cluster sizes to change over time. We compare, via simulation, the performance of existing methods to our subject-weighted approach. The subject-weighted approach was the only method that showed negligible bias, with excellent coverage, for all model parameters.     

Ibn Khaldun and Philosophy: Causality in History

Ibn Khaldun was a statesman, diplomat, scholar and judge. His masterpiece Muqaddimah bears testimony to his skills in some other fields like economy and poetry too. As an intellectual of his time, he was naturally interested in philosophy as well. He had an education in philosophy and had a considerable knowledge in both Greek and Islamic philosophy. In fact, he is considered a philosopher of history and even the first one. This article will display an aspect of Ibn Khaldun's interest and relation to philosophy. It will discuss his conception of causation and analyze how it works in his history.     

The Effect of Board of Directors’ IT Awareness on CIO Compensation and Firm Performance

Chief information officers (CIOs) play increasingly strategic roles in firms in this competitive global economy, which is now largely powered by information technology (IT). However, research has shown a lack of board of directors’ oversight on CIO‐ and IT‐related issues. Drawing on agency, resource dependence, and alignment theories, we investigate the effect of board of directors’ IT awareness on CIO compensation structure and firm performance. We conduct cross‐sectional time series analyses of data collected from various sources. Our study underlines three important findings. First, we show that some commonly known executive compensation determinants, such as individual characteristics and governance structure, do not have significant effects on CIO compensation structure. Second, with regard to CIO compensation structure, firms respond to increasing information asymmetry differently according to the level of IT awareness of their boards. Finally, firms perform better when their boards have higher levels of IT awareness, and this positive effect of IT awareness is considerably larger in IT intensive industries. Overall, our study provides empirical support for the important role of boards’ IT awareness in shaping CIO compensation and improving firm performance. Our results suggest that boards with functional area knowledge—or higher IT awareness in this case—can more effectively monitor and better incentivize executives, and consequently lead to better firm performance.