Will a Risk-Averse Decision Maker Ever Really Prefer an Unfair Gamble? Sometimes,He Will

The comments of Horowitz (1998) on the Prakash, Chang, Hamid, and Smyser (1996) paper are specifically directed towards Lemma 4 of the original paper. This reply proposes that Horowitz fails to recognize that the conditions stated are only necessary but not sufficient, and solutions can be obtained for some specific utility function for a given level of wealth in the case of a neutral gamble and for a range of wealth for unfair gambles. We derive the conditions to show that a risk preference function that satisfies the restrictions of Lemma 4 can exist for a given level of wealth.     

Critical Success Factors for Strategic Alliances in the Information Technology Industry: An Empirical Study*

Intense competition in the marketplace is forcing organizations to examine different ways by which they could enhance or retain their competitive edge. Strategic alliance is one such option through which an organization can leverage its resources to emerge as an effective competitor. Such alliances are burgeoning in the information technology industry, which is characterized by rapid change and short innovation cycles. Successful management of alliances has proved to be very elusive for the most part, and there is a lack of theoretical and empirical work in this area. Literature on critical factors was synthesized, and then a parsimonious set of critical factors was identified using a combination of interview and survey methodologies. Our study has implications for both practice and future research.     

Customization: Impact on Product and Process Performance

Manufacturing capability has often been viewed to be a major obstacle in achieving higher levels of customization. Companies follow various strategies ranging from equipment selection to order process management to cope with the challenges of increased customization. We examined how the customization process affects product performance and conformance in the context of a design‐to‐order (DTO) manufacturer of industrial components. Our competing risk hazard function model incorporates two thresholds, which we define as mismatch and manufacturing thresholds. Product performance was adversely affected when the degree of customization exceeded the mismatch threshold. Likewise, product conformance eroded when the degree of customization exceeded the manufacturing threshold. Relative sizes of the two thresholds have management implications for the subsequent investments to improve customization capabilities. Our research developed a rigorous framework to address two key questions relevant to the implementation of product customization: (1) what degrees of customization to offer, and (2) how to customize the product design process.     

Bayesian variable selection using an adaptive powered correlation prior

The problem of selecting the correct subset of predictors within a linear model has received much attention in recent literature. Within the Bayesian framework, a popular choice of prior has been Zellner's g$g$-prior which is based on the inverse of empirical covariance matrix of the predictors. An extension of the Zellner's prior is proposed in this article which allow for a power parameter on the empirical covariance of the predictors. The power parameter helps control the degree to which correlated predictors are smoothed towards or away from one another. In addition, the empirical covariance of the predictors is used to obtain suitable priors over model space. In this manner, the power parameter also helps to determine whether models containing highly collinear predictors are preferred or avoided. The proposed power parameter can be chosen via an empirical Bayes method which leads to a data adaptive choice of prior. Simulation studies and a real data example are presented to show how the power parameter is well determined from the degree of cross-correlation within predictors. The proposed modification compares favorably to the standard use of Zellner's prior and an intrinsic prior in these examples.     

Book reviews

L. Keeble and B.D. Loader (eds) Community Informatics. Shaping Computer-mediated Social Relations (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 388, ISBN 0-415-23112-4 (pbk) £18.99.

H. Dreyfus, On the Internet: Thinking in Action (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 136, ISBN 0-415228-077 (pbk).

D. Miller and D. Slater, The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2000), pp. 217, ISBN 1-8S973-389-1 (pbk) £14.99.     

Misclassifying New York’s Hidden Units as Vacant in 2010: Lessons Gleaned for the 2020 Census

The Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program allowed local governments to include hard-to-find units in the Census Bureau’s Master Address File (MAF), which is the cornerstone of the mailout/mailback decennial census. These improvements have allowed the Census Bureau to penetrate the more marginal parts of the housing stock, where units are often not formally labeled, and where their very existence can be difficult to determine. In New York City, where address updating included two rounds of LUCA, the Census Bureau acknowledged an increase of 170,000 housing units between 2000 and 2010. However, there was a dramatic growth in vacant units, equivalent to almost one-half of the total increase in housing units. The increase in vacant units was disproportionately concentrated in 2 of the 18 local census offices in New York City. The paper uses local administrative data on new construction, property foreclosures, and property values; data from the United States Postal Service; as well as survey data from the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey and the American Community Survey to show why this concentrated increase in vacant units is untenable. From the standpoint of the enumeration, units added in LUCA would challenge the best enumerator, but these hurdles were largely overcome, but for the two local census offices. The paper goes on to discuss how the Census Bureau can adopt measures in 2020 to ensure that housing units and their occupancy status are accurately enumerated in New York and across the nation.     

Variance estimation with randomized response

Presenting a general procedure of eliciting a randomized response (RR) from selected persons in order to estimate the total of a sensitive variable related to a finite survey population, we consider two estimators along with variance estimators treating the case of sampling with probabilities proportional to (known) size measures (PPS) with replacement (WR), drawing analogies with multi-stage sampling and note their relative efficacies.     

A new product growth model with a dynamic market potential

Traditional new product diffusion models have assumed a constant market potential over the planning horizon for forecasting product adoptions. This assumption is conceptually unsound and is likely to yield either theoretically unacceptable parameter estimates of the model or poor demand forecasts. This paper presents a dynamic growth model which relaxes this assumption. Model illustrations, limitations and further extensions are included.     

Patterns,Determinants, and Implications of Intermarriage Among Arab Americans

This study examines Arab American intermarriage using 1990 U.S. Census data. The results indicate high rates of intermarriage consistent with an assimilation perspective. Over 80% of U.S.‐born Arabs had non‐Arab spouses, implying a diminishing ethnic identification. Logistic regressions show that for both sexes, those with part Arab ancestry, the U.S. born, those with strong English‐language ability, and the highly educated were significantly more likely to out‐marry, as were Arabs of Lebanese ancestry. The cultural and structural assimilation of Arab Americans is facilitating intermarriage, with indicators of acculturation being the strongest predictors, especially for women. The article further discusses ethnic options for children of intermarried couples.     

Quality of Work Life of Teaching Staff Working at a Higher Education Institution in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-sectional Study

A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to study the quality of work life (QoWL) of the teaching staff employed at a Saudi higher education institution, focusing on their ethnic backgrounds and the academic clusters in which they were employed. A total of 360 teaching staff were randomly selected using a two-stage cluster sampling method, and a self-structured quality of work life questionnaire was used to collect data. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 19.0. The results indicated that 71% of the respondents were satisfied with their QoWL at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU), Saudi Arabia. A significant difference of opinion was observed among the teaching staff on two dimensions of QoWL, viz. ‘working conditions’ and ‘psychosocial factors’ (p < 0.05). However, no significant difference was observed on other QoWL attributes, such as ‘opportunity for training and development’ and ‘job satisfaction and job security’ (p > 0.05). Given that all public universities in Saudi Arabia are governed by regulations framed by the Ministry of education, this study provides important indicators to educational policy planners on understanding the QoWL of teaching staff employed in universities across Saudi Arabia.