Consumer trust in B2C e-Commerce and the importance of social presence: experiments in e-Products and e-Services

Reducing social uncertainty—understanding, predicting, and controlling the behavior of other people—is a central motivating force of human behavior. When rules and customs are not sufficient, people rely on trust and familiarity as primary mechanisms to reduce social uncertainty. The relative paucity of regulations and customs on the Internet makes consumer familiarity and trust especially important in the case of e-Commerce. Yet the lack of an interpersonal exchange and the one-time nature of the typical business transaction on the Internet make this kind of consumer trust unique, because trust relates to other people and is nourished through interactions with them.This study validates a four-dimensional scale of trust in the context of e-Products and revalidates it in the context of e-Services. The study then shows the influence of social presence on these dimensions of this trust, especially benevolence, and its ultimate contribution to online purchase intentions.     

Eye-tracking methodology: exploring the processing of question formats in web surveys

In social research, the use of agree/disagree (A/D) questions is a popular method for measuring attitudes. Research has shown that A/D questions require complex cognitive processing and are susceptible to response bias. Thus, some researchers recommend the use of item-specific (IS) questions. This study examines the processing of A/D and IS questions, using eye-tracking methodology. By recording respondents’ eye movements, how respondents process survey questions can be evaluated. The results reveal that IS questions cause more and longer fixations. However, this only applies to the response categories. There are no differences regarding the question stems. Altogether, it seems that IS response categories trigger deeper cognitive processing than A/D response categories.     

Linearity,symmetry, and equidistance in semantic differential scales for measuring images of self and images of others

ABSTRACT

Violations of linearity, symmetry, and equidistance of scale points in semantic differential scales may be due to respondents failing to figure out antonyms, to a positivity bias, or to respondents curtailing their reading the options. Multiple correspondence analysis on data provided by a randomized between-subjects experiment (split-ballot), using a web survey of 537 German residents, shows that bipolar semantic differential scales allow for linear measurement and conceal no positivity bias, and that using not suitable adjective pairs in semantic differential scales destroys symmetry.     

广东普通工科高等教育的办学效益分析研究

对广东普通工科高等教育的办学效益问题,从结构布局效益、层次与规模效益进行了讨论,提出了提高办学效益的基本对策。     

Assessment of Uncertainty in High Frequency Data: The Observed Asymptotic Variance

The availability of high frequency financial data has generated a series of estimators based on intra‐day data, improving the quality of large areas of financial econometrics. However, estimating the standard error of these estimators is often challenging. The root of the problem is that traditionally, standard errors rely on estimating a theoretically derived asymptotic variance, and often this asymptotic variance involves substantially more complex quantities than the original parameter to be estimated. Standard errors are important: they are used to assess the precision of estimators in the form of confidence intervals, to create “feasible statistics” for testing, to build forecasting models based on, say, daily estimates, and also to optimize the tuning parameters. The contribution of this paper is to provide an alternative and general solution to this problem, which we call Observed Asymptotic Variance. It is a general nonparametric method for assessing asymptotic variance (AVAR). It provides consistent estimators of AVAR for a broad class of integrated parameters Θ = ∫ θ_t dt, where the spot parameter process θ can be a general semimartingale, with continuous and jump components. The observed AVAR is implemented with the help of a two‐scales method. Its construction works well in the presence of microstructure noise, and when the observation times are irregular or asynchronous in the multivariate case. The methodology is valid for a wide variety of estimators, including the standard ones for variance and covariance, and also for more complex estimators, such as, of leverage effects, high frequency betas, and semivariance.     

Using statistical techniques to detect fraud: a test case

In an experiment to test the effectiveness of statistical measures in detecting fraud, three physicians fabricated scores on the Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) for a number of subjects in three sites. The fabricated data were then planted among MADRS data from 18 genuine sites. A statistician blinded as to the identity and quantity of the fabricated data attempted to detect the ‘fraudulent’ data by searching for unusual means and correlations. One of the three fabricated sites was correctly identified, and one genuine site was incorrectly identified as a potential fabrication. In addition, inlying and/or outlying means and correlations found in the genuine data suggested the possibility of using statistical checks for unusual data early in a study so that sites with unusual patterns could be prioritized for monitoring, training and, if necessary, auditing. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

A proposal for categorizing the severity of non uniform differential item functioning: The polytomous case

Abstract

Differential item functioning (DIF) is present when something about the characteristics of a test taker interferes with the relationship between ability and item response. Non uniform DIF (NUDIF) exists when there is interaction between ability level and group membership. The aim of this study is to propose guidelines to evaluate the severity of NUDIF, taking into account the family of Rasch models. The severity of NUDIF is evaluated trying to quantify the overall biasing impact of the presence in the test of NUDIF items, on the estimated measure of the latent trait of interest.     

高等教育服务质量评估四分量表初探

在已有的高等教育服务质量观下,高等教育的产出是教育服务,其参与主体是学生及其家庭,而在服务过程中,教师也是重要的参与者,社会企业是高等教育主体的主要检验者,他们之间具有十分密切的联系。根据服务业发展的SERVQUAL模型,应当综合考虑,形成全面合理的评估标准模型,形成适合高等教育服务质量评估的学生、教师、家庭和企业的四分量表,以尽可能完善高等教育的评价制度,推动高等教育的发展进步。     

HIV/AIDS: Measuring an Evolving Virus

Many social work journal articles portray HIV as a chronic illness. Although HIV medical management has evolved, it is far from chronic for most of the world. With such rapid developments in the field of HIV/AIDS, this article examines validity of knowledge measurements developed pre-HAART. Further, what place does validity hold in the maintenance of these measurement devices? The authors review several widely used measurement scales utilized in developed nations—The Beliefs About Preventing AIDS, The HIV Knowledge Questionnaire, and The International IADS Questionnaire-English Version—to answer these questions and to promote understanding for social workers in the field of HIV/AIDS regarding validity of the instruments.     

能源与环境设计先导评价标准约束下的景观设计——以成都万国数据中心景观设计为例

美国绿色建筑委员会（USGBC）的国家标准LEED认证是目前国际上最具影响力的绿色建筑评估体系之一。本研究以成都万国数据中心的景观设计为例,结合地域文化提炼的设计理念,与建筑设计充分的融合并延续风格,在LEED认证下的景观设计遵循场地可持续发展理念,在设计与建设过程运用新材料、新方法以及新的管理和许可规程;设计以植被为主,防止热岛效应。雨洪利用借鉴北京奥林匹克公园＂下渗为主,适当回收;先下渗净化,再回收利用＂设计,合理拦蓄雨水资源,并科学利用绿色电力和可再生能源。