An analytical management framework for new product development processes featuring uncertain iterations

This paper presents an analytical framework for effective management of projects with uncertain iterations. The framework is based upon: (1) the combination of two complementary techniques, one focused on improving iterative process architectures, the Design Structure Matrix, and one focused on predicting project performance, the Graphical Evaluation Review Technique; and (2) the introduction of an activity set-based criticality measure. The intent of the framework is to help project managers and researchers identify and evaluate alternative process architectures, in order to help them determine the alternative which best balances risk and other project performance parameters, as illustrated through an example application.     

Optimal unconditional critical regions for 2 2 2 multinomial trials

Analysing a 2 2 2 table is one of the most frequent problems in applied research (particularly in epidemiology). When the table arises from a 2 2 2 multinomial trial (or the case of double dichotomy), the appropriate test for independence is an unconditional one, like those of Barnard (1947), which, although they date from a long time ago, have not been developed (because of computational problems) until the last ten years. Among the different possible versions, the optimal (Martín Andrés & Tapia Garcia, 1999) is Barnard's original one, but the calculation time (even today) is excessive. This paper offers critical region tables for that version, which behave well compared to those of Shuster (1992). The tables are of particular use for researchers wishing to obtain significant results for very small sample sizes (N h 50).     

An Index of Child Health in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Africa

In this article we present a new composite index of child health, applied to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of Africa, one of the areas of the planet most castigated by poverty. Our index has been constructed attending to the variables defined in the Goals of the Millennium Declaration. For this purpose we will use the P₂ distance method for the year 2008, the last year for which data are available. This index integrates variables of child health that permit a territorial ordering of the LDCs of Africa, in terms of those partial indicators.     

Dynamic Marketing Capabilities: Toward an Integrative Framework

In recent years, the dynamic capabilities view has attracted attention in the management literature, and theoretical papers note many research challenges. Currently, one of the most significant issues is the role of the marketing function in the development of dynamic capabilities, and some recent discussions have even introduced the new term ‘dynamic marketing capabilities’. The main area of interest is how to achieve a well‐integrated framework to serve as the starting point for empirical papers. Although the most recent research proposes a wide range of processes as possible dynamic marketing capabilities, it is difficult to find consensus among these proposals. To resolve this difficulty, this paper seeks to define the dynamic marketing capabilities construct based on accepted components in the generic dynamic capabilities view. More specifically, it defines the role of dynamic marketing capabilities through absorptive capacity and knowledge management. By identifying these components and relating them in an integrative model, the authors propose to explain how dynamic marketing capabilities work and precisely which marketing processes promote both components.     

The Features of Development in the Pacific Countries of the African,Caribbean and Pacific Group

In this article we present a new proposal for the measurement of development, applied to the Pacific Countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP), conditional on their insularity, and with privileged relations with the European Union. Our index has been constructed attending to the criteria defined in the Goals of the Millennium Declaration. For this purpose we will use the P₂ distance method for the year 2007, the last year for which data are available. This index integrates socio-economic variables that permit a territorial ordering of the Pacific ACPs, in terms of those partial indicators.     

Travelling from New Spain to Mexico: Mapping Practices of Nineteenth-Century Mexico

James Horn, Adapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeenth‐Century Chesapeake (1994), xv + 461 (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, $60.50).

Marguerite W. Dupree, Family Structure in the Staffordshire Potteries, 1840–1880 (1995), xx + 405 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £48.00).

David B. Copian, In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants (1994), xxi + 300 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, $55.00, paperback $18.95).

Ellen Meiksins Wood, Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism (1995), 300 (Cambridge University Press, London, £35.00).     

Adapting Zara’s ‘Pronto Moda’ to a value brand retailer

The clothing sector is currently characterised by frequent assortment rotation in stores, a quick response product development and a focus on minimising end-of-campaign stock levels. This paper is based on a case study carried out at a value brand retailer, with a purpose to show how the company increased competitiveness in a market requiring more responsiveness. The case presented shows that the establishment of an adequate supply strategy for differentiated product segments, the introduction of mini-collections, the redesign of business processes (especially the new product development and the order fulfilment processes) and the redesign of the supply chain, lead to a sales increase and purchasing savings. Moreover, the study treats how a value brand retailer, facing different supply chain challenges compared with the leading brands, balance global and local production, lean and agile manufacturing and how it is possible to abandon the traditional two-campaign paradigm in favour of more rapid replenishment.     

Locally and maximin optimal designs for multi-factor nonlinear models

This paper considers the search for locally and maximin optimal designs for multi-factor nonlinear models from optimal designs for sub-models of a lower dimension. In particular, sufficient conditions are given so that maximin D-optimal designs for additive multi-factor nonlinear models can be built from maximin D-optimal designs for their sub-models with a single factor. Some examples of application are models involving exponential decay in several variables.     

Minimum phi-divergence estimators for loglinear models with linear constraints and multinomial sampling

In this paper the family ofφ-divergence estimators for loglinear models with linear constraints and multinomial sampling is studied. This family is an extension of the maximum likelihood estimator studied by Haber and Brown (1986). A simulation study is presented and some alternative estimators to the maximum likelihood are obtained. This work was parcially supported by Grant DGES PB2003-892     

A Bayesian model for multinomial sampling with misclassified data

In this paper the issue of making inferences with misclassified data from a noisy multinomial process is addressed. A Bayesian model for making inferences about the proportions and the noise parameters is developed. The problem is reformulated in a more tractable form by introducing auxiliary or latent random vectors. This allows for an easy-to-implement Gibbs sampling-based algorithm to generate samples from the distributions of interest. An illustrative example related to elections is also presented.