Strategic Design Responsiveness: An Empirical Analysis of US Retail Store Networks

This study uses a service operations management (SOM) strategy lens to investigate chain store retailers' strategic design responsiveness (SDR)—a term that captures the degree to which retailers dynamically coordinate investments in human and structural capital with the complexity of their service and product offerings. Labor force and physical capital are respectively used as proxies for investments in human capital and structural capital, whereas gross margins are proxies for product/service offering complexity. Consequently, SDR broadly reflects three salient complementary choices of SOM design strategy. We test the effects of “brick and mortar” chain store retailers' SDR on current and future firm performance using publically available panel data collected from Compustat and the University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction Index databases for the period 1996–2011. We find that retailers that fail to keep pace with investments in both structural and human capital exhibit short‐term financial benefits, but have worse ongoing operational performance. These findings corroborate the importance of managers strategically maintaining the complementarity of design‐related choices for improving and maintaining business performance.     

LABOR SUPPLY OF POLITICIANS

Using data on Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), we examine the impact of salaries on the composition and the behavior of legislators. Employing a differences‐in‐differences approach, we exploit the introduction of a law that equalized MEPs' salaries which had previously differed by as much as a factor of 10. Increasing salaries raises the fraction of MEPs who run for re‐election but decreases the quality of elected MEPs (proxied by college quality). Salary has no discernible impact on effort or legislation output. Higher salaries induce more political competition.     

A Business Model Innovation Typology

An effective business model is the core enabler of any company's performance. Business model innovation is not only becoming more and more important due to increasing and globalizing competition, but also an enormous challenge, both theoretically and practically. Although many managers are eager to consider more disruptive changes to their business model, they often do not know how to articulate their existing or desired business model and, even less so, understand the possibilities for innovating it. One of the steps toward developing more theoretical insight and practical guidelines is the identification of types and the development of a typology of business model innovations. Ten retrospective case studies of business model innovations undertaken by two industrial companies provide the empirical basis for this article. We analyzed the characteristics of these innovations as well as their success rates. The findings suggest that there are indeed various business model innovation types, each with its own characteristics and challenges.     

Coherence principles in interval‐based dose finding

This paper studies the notion of coherence in interval‐based dose‐finding methods. An incoherent decision is either (a) a recommendation to escalate the dose following an observed dose‐limiting toxicity or (b) a recommendation to deescalate the dose following a non–dose‐limiting toxicity. In a simulated example, we illustrate that the Bayesian optimal interval method and the Keyboard method are not coherent. We generated dose‐limiting toxicity outcomes under an assumed set of true probabilities for a trial of n=36 patients in cohorts of size 1, and we counted the number of incoherent dosing decisions that were made throughout this simulated trial. Each of the methods studied resulted in 13/36 (36%) incoherent decisions in the simulated trial. Additionally, for two different target dose‐limiting toxicity rates, 20% and 30%, and a sample size of n=30 patients, we randomly generated 100 dose‐toxicity curves and tabulated the number of incoherent decisions made by each method in 1000 simulated trials under each curve. For each method studied, the probability of incurring at least one incoherent decision during the conduct of a single trial is greater than 75%. Coherency is an important principle in the conduct of dose‐finding trials. Interval‐based methods violate this principle for cohorts of size 1 and require additional modifications to overcome this shortcoming. Researchers need to take a closer look at the dose assignment behavior of interval‐based methods when using them to plan dose‐finding studies.     

Parameter estimation of Lindley step stress model with independent competing risk under type 1 censoring

Abstract

In literature, Lindley distribution is considered as an alternative to exponential distribution to fit lifetime data. In the present work, a Lindley step-stress model with independent causes of failure is proposed. An algorithm to generate random samples from the proposed model under type 1 censoring scheme is developed. Point and interval estimation of the model parameters is carried out using maximum likelihood method and percentile bootstrap approach. To understand the effectiveness of the resulting estimates, numerical illustration is provided based on simulated and real-life data sets.     

Ranking of the Most Prolific Authors,Universities, and Organizations in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management

ABSTRACT

Over the years, reviews in behavior analysis have sought to identify the most prolific researchers and institutions. The goal of these reviews was to offer one resource for behavior analysts to identify experts in behavior analysis and quality graduate programs. However, most of these reviews omitted the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM), making the results less relevant to those who work in organizational behavior management. The purpose of this review was to extend previous findings and identify the most published researchers, academic institutions, and organizations in JOBM since its inception. Furthermore, we calculated the citation rate (per year, per article) for each of the top 20 most published authors. The results, implications, and opportunities for further analysis are discussed.     

“美丽乡村”旅游产业园创新模式

旅游产业园是旅游产业集聚发展过程中产生的一种产业集群形态。旅游产业园作为新事物,其实践发展领先于理论研究。虽然旅游产业园在国内已有所发展,但对其认知尚处于探索阶段。相思谷旅游产业园有机融合当地农业和旅游业的要素,充分释放农业中蕴含的巨大旅游潜力,以农业推动旅游业开发,旅游业拉动农业生产,成为第一产业和第三产业联动效应的典范,相思谷旅游产业园建立“公司+农户+网站”创新开发模式,并秉承“生态文明”的理念,采取“内嵌式保护开发”创新创建模式和“复合农业立体展示”创新发展模式,推动“旅居业”融合发展,从而促进新型城镇化建设,最终实现当地美丽乡村“中国梦”。     

制度与非制度因素对农民工落户城镇意愿的影响

农民工能否落户城镇对我国的新型城镇化建设有重大的现实影响。利用2013年全国流动人口动态监测数据,从制度性因素和非制度性因素两方面对农民工的落户城镇意愿进行了探讨。实证研究发现：社会保险状况及学龄子女是否在本地就学会显著影响农民工的落户意愿,表明制度性因素的重要;从社会网络视角来看,基于传统的先赋性场域网络如亲属网对农民工的落户意愿无显著影响,而基于现代社会的自致性场域网络如朋友网、行政组织网、工作同事网则显著提高了农民工落户城镇的意愿。     

小额信贷经理人愿意扶贫吗？——基于西北地区贫困县152位信贷经理人的经验分析

基于西北5省15个国家级贫困县152位信贷经理人的问卷调查,分析了小额信贷经理人的扶贫意愿、行为以及影响因素。经验研究结果表明：在调研的国家级贫困县中,尽管近六成小额信贷经理人向贫困户发放过贷款,但业务量总体较少,具有信贷扶贫意愿的不到2成;性别、教育背景、收入满意度、信贷决策自主性、放贷任务以及是否完成任务对信贷扶贫业务有显著影响;性别和信贷自主权对扶贫意愿具有显著影响。由此,在信贷扶贫项目选择信贷经理人时,采取差异化策略,有序放松信贷自主权,加强扶贫效果考核,对提高金融扶贫绩效会起到积极的作用。     

农村养老方式的区域差异与观念嬗变

伴随中国经济社会结构的转型以及人口结构的变化,农村老人的养老观念也在发生变化。通过对东、中、西和东北地区农村老人的问卷调查与深度访谈,初步分析和探讨了农村老人的养老方式及观念变迁问题,并对其进行了区域比较。研究发现,“养儿防老”已变得难以为继,多数老人在可承受范围内进行自我养老,“土地养老”在部分农村地区较为盛行,但却呈现出较为明显的阶段性特征。分地区来看,东部地区较为盛行自我养老,中部地区盛行家庭养老,西部和东北地区则盛行土地养老。究其原因,可从土地条件、经济发展水平和文化传统三个面向对其作出解释。为顺应当前中国农村养老方式和养老观念的发展变化,从可能性、必要性、创新性和实践性四个层面提出了农业养老的构想。