Supplier‐Switching Inertia and Competitive Asymmetry: A Demand‐Side Perspective*

Building on strategic management, operations strategy, and supplier management literatures, this article presents a framework for supplier selection from the demand‐side perspective. We highlight the role of a purchasing firm's switching inertia in the supplier‐selection process and demonstrate the usefulness of our framework for the industrial automation industry. Empirical data for this study was collected from 171 corporate and plant‐level executives in pharmaceutical, chemical, and paper‐and‐pulp manufacturing industries in the United States. A series of Web‐based individually customized discrete choice experiments asked the respondents to either switch to the new supplier or stay with the existing supplier. Based on the results of these experiments, we demonstrate the existence of switching inertia in the supplier‐selection process and discuss the managerial implications for incumbent and challenger supplier firms.     

Non-conjugate prior distribution assessment for multivariate normal sampling

Elicitation methods are proposed for quantifying expert opinion about a multivariate normal sampling model. The natural conjugate prior family imposes a relationship between the mean vector and the covariance matrix that can portray an expert's opinion poorly. Instead we assume that opinions about the mean and the covariance are independent and suggest innovative forms of question which enable the expert to quantify separately his or her opinion about each of these parameters. Prior opinion about the mean vector is modelled by a multivariate normal distribution and about the covariance matrix by both an inverse Wishart distribution and a generalized inverse-Wishart (GIW) distribution. To construct the latter, results are developed that give insight into the GIW parameters and their interrelationships. Certain of the elicitation methods exploit unconditional assessments as fully as possible, since these can reflect an expert's beliefs more accurately than conditional assessments. Methods are illustrated through an example.     

台湾家庭暴力危险分级方案之成效:一个分类整合模式

台湾地区嘉义县市家庭暴力危险分级管理试办方案尝试以改正目前台湾家庭暴力防治之缺点提出整体之改善方式与调整保护令申请流程,如从报案时施测致命危险评估量表(DA)及申请保护令时填写受暴严重度量表(CTS)、以简易评估代替审前鉴定、由法官依据简易评估之危险分级裁定不同周数辅导治疗、及警察及社工员依据危险分级作不同密度之两造关...     

Graduate Social Work Students’ Approaches and Ways of Thinking in Child Protection Assessment: Case Vignette Reflections from Estonia

This article examines Estonian graduate social work students’ (MSW, n = 41) assessment approaches (deficit-based versus strengths-based) in the context of a child protection assessment through a case vignette format. The study found that students tend to focus more on a traditional deficit-based approach in their responses to a presented case, and less on capabilities and resources. The study indicates the need to find ways to promote more client-friendly approaches (for a shift in the way of thinking) in social work education to empower families through developing a respectful and effective helping relationship that promotes comprehensive assessment guided by social work values. Practice implications are discussed and recommendations for future research are outlined.     

Validity and reliability of the Italian Gambling Functional Assessment–Revised

Problem gambling is a growing phenomenon in Italy, and there is increasing interest in studying the reasons for gambling in the Italian community. The Gambling Functional Assessment–Revised (GFA-R) was developed to assess two contingencies maintaining gambling behaviour: positive reinforcement and escape. The study hypothesized that the GFA-R could be translated and adopted in the Italian context. The main purpose of this study was to test the factor structure of the Italian version of the GFA-R by means of confirmatory factor analysis, its internal consistency and validity, in a sample of 667 Italian-speaking adults, recruited at universities, banks, of?ces, industries, markets, public parks and shops in five regions: Piemonte, Veneto, Lazio, Calabria and Puglia. The study found that the scale was internally consistent, and results showed that the original two-factor model fitted the data well. It also found moderate correlations between the GFA-R-I and both SOGS scores and GRCS scores. These results will allow Italian psychologists, educators and policymakers to identify specific contingencies maintaining gambling behaviour (positive reinforcement vs. escape) in the Italian community, detecting people more at risk of developing disordered gambling, with significant improvements in terms of prevention and clinical intervention.     

Accounting for clinical covariates and interactions in ranking genomic markers using ROC

In biomedical research, profiling is now commonly conducted, generating high-dimensional genomic measurements (without loss of generality, say genes). An important analysis objective is to rank genes according to their marginal associations with a disease outcome/phenotype. Clinical-covariates, including for example clinical risk factors and environmental exposures, usually exist and need to be properly accounted for. In this study, we propose conducting marginal ranking of genes using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) based method. This method can accommodate categorical, censored survival, and continuous outcome variables in a very similar manner. Unlike logistic-model-based methods, it does not make very specific assumptions on model, making it robust. In ranking genes, we account for both the main effects of clinical-covariates and their interactions with genes, and develop multiple diagnostic accuracy improvement measurements. Using simulation studies, we show that the proposed method is effective in that genes associated with or gene–covariate interactions associated with the outcome receive high rankings. In data analysis, we observe some differences between the rankings using the proposed method and the logistic-model-based method.     

Predictors of child protective service contact between birth and age five: An examination of California's 2002 birth cohort

This study utilizes population-level birth data to describe those children who may be at greatest risk of maltreatment during the first five years of life. Based on a unique dataset constructed by linking California's administrative child welfare data to statewide vital birth records, a cohort study design was employed to track reports of maltreatment involving children born in 2002. Twelve variables captured in the birth record were selected for analysis. Generalized Linear Models were used to estimate adjusted risk ratios (RR) for each independent variable. Predicted probabilities of CPS contact were computed based on the count of risk factors present at birth. Results suggest that many of the associations previously observed between birth variables and subsequent maltreatment have sustained value in foretelling which children will be reported to CPS beyond infancy. Of the 531,035 children born in California in 2002, 14% (74,182) were reported for possible maltreatment before the age of five. Eleven of the twelve birth variables examined presented as significant predictors of contact with child protective services.     

基于AHP法分析多校区校园文化建设

影响多校区校园文化建设的因素是多方面的,其中有些因素无法度量。因此,多校区校园文化建设评价是模糊的、不确定的,难以准确地定义和量化。鉴于此,将定性与定量分析相结合的多准则决策方法——层次分析法(Analytic Hierarchy Process,简记AHP)应用到多校区校园文化建设评价中,通过构造校园文化建设综合评价层次分析模型得到评估结果,并根据评估结果拟定相关方案。