Men are real, Women are 'made up': beauty therapy and the construction of femininity

Beauty therapy as an industry is multi-faceted; as a set of practices it is complex. The beauty industry has been the subject of much critique but comparatively little empirical study. Based upon research with beauty therapists themselves, this article investigates the complex relationship between femininity and beauty. The beauty industry is located within debates about the body and leisure. The growth in the beauty industry is also linked to the commodification of body practices. Despite remaining critical of the role of beauty in the lives of women, we also emphasise the fact that women are not 'cultural dopes' (Davis, 1991). The actual experiences of beauty treatments and the testimonies of women involved in the industry paint a picture of competing discourses and contradictory outcomes. This is not least because both clients and therapists deny being concerned with beauty, but rather aim to provide 'pampering', 'treatment' or 'grooming'. The beauty salon may be seen as the site of both compliance with, and escape from, a feminine ideal. The role of class, ethnicity and age in breaking down the monolithical concept of beauty and in fragmenting the experiences of beauty practices are also discussed.     

Corporate growth,sustainability and business ethics in twenty-first century

Journal of Management and Governance -     

A hierarchical Bayes analysis for one-shot device testing experiment under the assumption of exponentiality

The article considers a two-stage hierarchical Bayes technique to analyze a dataset coming from a “one-shot” device testing experiment. The development is based on the assumption of exponential model for the lifetimes with failure rate regressed according to the Cox proportional hazards model. The Bayes implementation is done through a Gibbs–Metropolis hybridization scheme that easily entertains the missing data cases as well. Lastly, numerical illustration is provided based on a real data example on electro-explosive devices. The results show that the Bayesian method performs considerably well for such type of experiments.     

Some efficient classes of estimators of population mean in two-phase successive sampling under random non response

In this paper, an attempt has been made to present some efficient classes of estimators of population mean on current occasion in two-occasion successive sampling under random non response in two-phase setup. Effectiveness of the proposed classes of estimators has been studied under the assumptions that sampling units follow a distribution under the random non response. To check the performances, the proposed classes of estimators are compared with an estimator under the similar situation under the complete response. Results are demonstrated through empirical studies which show the reliable nature of the proposed classes of estimators. Suitable recommendations have been made to the survey practitioners.     

An extended Maxwell distribution: Properties and applications

In this article, we propose an extension of the Maxwell distribution, so-called the extended Maxwell distribution. This extension is evolved by using the Maxwell-X family of distributions and Weibull distribution. We study its fundamental properties such as hazard rate, moments, generating functions, skewness, kurtosis, stochastic ordering, conditional moments and moment generating function, hazard rate, mean and variance of the (reversed) residual life, reliability curves, entropy, etc. In estimation viewpoint, the maximum likelihood estimation of the unknown parameters of the distribution and asymptotic confidence intervals are discussed. We also obtain expected Fisher’s information matrix as well as discuss the existence and uniqueness of the maximum likelihood estimators. The EMa distribution and other competing distributions are fitted to two real datasets and it is shown that the distribution is a good competitor to the compared distributions.     

Effectual variance estimation strategy in two-occasion successive sampling in presence of random non response

Present investigation deals with the problem of random non response in estimation of population variance on current occasion in two-occasion successive sampling. To reduce the negative impact of random non response on both occasions, regression type imputation method has been suggested. Using auxiliary information, efficient estimation strategies have been developed for estimation of population variance on the current occasion. Estimator for the population variance is also derived as a special case when random non response occurs only on the current occasion. Empirical studies are carried out to show the dominance of suggested estimators over sample variance and exponential type estimators. Results are interpreted.     

A new approach to use multivariate auxiliary information in sample surveys

A new approach to form multivariate difference estimator is suggested which does not require the knowledge of unknown population parameters as such. It gives minimum variance among the class of multivariate difference estimators. The performance of this estimator with respect to Des Raj's (J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 60 (1965), 270–277) multivariate difference estimator is illustrated. Using the information on two auxiliary variates, the robustness of Des Raj's estimator y_d is studied empirically. Two new estimators to estimate population mean/total are developed on the same lines as that of y_d. The performance of these estimators is studied for a wide variety of populations.     

Competitive Priorities in Operations Management

Identifying manufacturers' competitive priorities has long been considered a key element in manufacturing strategy research. However, relatively little effort has been devoted to measurement of these constructs in published research. In this study we develop scales for commonly accepted competitive priorities, cost importance, quality importance, delivery-time importance, and flexibility importance. We assess how well the scales capture the constructs that they represent using data collected from 114 manufacturing plants in the United States. The findings suggest that the instrument developed can provide reliable data and that the constructs measured are valid. In addition, comparisons between pairs of informants representing the same business indicate that the perceptual measures of competitive priorities are as reliable as point estimates of routine, seemingly objective information.