Interorganizational Power in a Canadian Community: a Replication

The Perrucci and Pilisuk community power study of a medium-sized midwestern U. S. city is replicated on a small Prairie Canadian resort town. The interorganizational basis for power, derived from overlapping executive memberships, is the perspective followed in both studies. Essentially the same results are found in both places. A well-defined elite structure exists capable of mobilizing interorganizational power resources.     

The Internet and Opinion Measurement: Surveying Marginalized Populations

Objective . Problems of self-selection, selection bias, and response rates have greatly limited the use and validity of on-line surveys. This study addresses those issues by examining population data for a group of Internet users who responded to a series of on-line surveys, enabling the calculation of both response rate and selection bias. Methodology . A series of surveys were posted on a gay/lesbian website. We compare demographic data collected from our study sample with national data on gays/lesbians. A logistic regression model was used to determine if differences existed between participants and nonparticipants. Results . The study sample of gays/lesbians comported well with the national sample. Demographic characteristics of those electing to participate in the surveys and nonparticipants are practically indistinguishable. The response rate to our on-line surveys was approximately 16.4 percent, similar to that in nontargeted mail surveys. Conclusions . The results indicate that, despite its limitations, the Internet can be a valuable medium in reaching populations difficult to identify using standard survey research techniques.     

With or Without You?1 Strategic Spatial Planning and Territorial Re-Scaling in Grenoble Urban Region

Spatial planning across European city regions is undergoing substantial changes. The paper draws on the framework of territorial re-scaling, strategic spatial planning and the emergence of new governance modes in order to analyse strategic planning episodes in Grenoble urban region (France). The paper aims at showing how strategic planning processes by means of new governance arenas call into question local planning cultures, especially by reshaping planning perimeters, territorial identities and actors' roles. In particular, it shows the importance of path dependency for strategic planning, the effects of power imbalances between local actors and the crucial role planners play in spatial policy-making.     

Reputation and Mechanism Choice in Procurement Auctions: An Experiment

We experimentally study the role of reputation in procurement using two common mechanisms: price‐based and buyer‐determined auctions. While buyers are bound to buy from the lowest bidder in price‐based auctions, they can choose between bidders in buyer‐determined auctions. Only the latter buyers can consider the reputation of bidders. We find that bidders supply higher quality in buyer‐determined auctions leading to higher market efficiencies in these auctions. Accordingly, buyers prefer the buyer‐determined auction over the price‐based auction, while only half of the bidders do so. A more detailed analysis of buyers' and bidders' behavior and profits provides insights into their mechanism choice.     

Monitoring correlation change in a sequence of random variables

We propose a monitoring procedure to test for the constancy of the correlation coefficient of a sequence of random variables. The idea of the method is that a historical sample is available and the goal is to monitor for changes in the correlation as new data become available. We introduce a detector which is based on the first hitting time of a CUSUM-type statistic over a suitably constructed threshold function. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the detector and show that the procedure detects a change with probability approaching unity as the length of the historical period increases. The method is illustrated by Monte Carlo experiments and the analysis of a real application with the log-returns of the Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) and IBM stock assets.     

The empowerment of people with disabilities through qualitative research

The purpose of this article is to explore the use of qualitative research in vocational rehabilitation as a means of empowering people with disabilities to (a) take greater control of their lives and (b) directly inform public policy and vocational rehabilitation service delivery. After exploring various definitions of the construct empowerment, we provide a rationale for the use of qualitative research as an empowerment mechanism based on (a) philosophies espoused by leaders of the independent living movement, (b) disability legislation, and (c) a multi-constituency call for more consumer involvement in research. We then describe empirical properties of various qualitative methodologies that lend themselves to consumer empowerment. The article concludes with several examples of qualitative approaches to scientific inquiry from the rehabilitation literature that include many of the empowerment aspects described herein.     

Digitalisierung und Konvergenz von Online- und Offline-Welt

The increasing diffusion of mobile phones with internet access (Smartphones) enables more and more consumers to use the mobile internet. In addition, there is a continuing integration of location-based services (LBS). By means of Global Positioning Systems or WiFi-triangulation LBS provide context-aware information to consumers. This leads to a convergence of online and offline worlds. The usage of LBS delivers additional information to consumers (e.g. alternative offers or detailed product information). Therefore LBS do have an influence on consumer behavior. Particularly during the search process, information about prices or geographic distances, that are relevant for the purchase, are of importance. This study analyzes the relevance of location-based internet search empirically. Search costs are estimated on an individual level in a choice-based conjoint analysis using two different products. As a result, location-based internet search is considered to be very relevant for search and influential on consumer behavior. The study shows different consumers preferences and different search costs depending on the product. To conclude the study, the implications are discussed. The major contribution of this study is that it shows that offline and online search do have a mutual impact on each other. Furthermore, search costs are measured in a mobile context.     

Improved nearest neighbor classifiers by weighting and selection of predictors

Nearest neighborhood classification is a flexible classification method that works under weak assumptions. The basic concept is to use the weighted or un-weighted sums over class indicators of observations in the neighborhood of the target value. Two modifications that improve the performance are considered here. Firstly, instead of using weights that are solely determined by the distances we estimate the weights by use of a logit model. By using a selection procedure like lasso or boosting the relevant nearest neighbors are automatically selected. Based on the concept of estimation and selection, in the second step, we extend the predictor space. We include nearest neighborhood counts, but also the original predictors themselves and nearest neighborhood counts that use distances in sub dimensions of the predictor space. The resulting classifiers combine the strength of nearest neighbor methods with parametric approaches and by use of sub dimensions are able to select the relevant features. Simulations and real data sets demonstrate that the method yields better misclassification rates than currently available nearest neighborhood methods and is a strong and flexible competitor in classification problems.