Entrepreneurial opportunities, implicit contracts and market making for complex consumer goods

This article extends the theory of entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation, outlining how under certain conditions, opportunity exploitation is dependent on market making innovations. Where adverse selection and moral hazard characterize markets, consumers are likely to withdraw regardless of product quality. In order to overcome consumer resistance, entrepreneurs must signal credible commitments. But because consumers purchase without fully specifying requirements, entrepreneurs' commitments take the partial form of implicit contracts, creating strong mutual commitments to repeated transactions. These commitments enable novel markets to function, but introduce additional costs. This article illustrates the theory with the historic case of Singer in sewing machines

Documents as 'critical incidents' in organisation to consumer communication

A diary study tracked the paper documents received by nine UK informants over one month. Informants gave simple ratings of individual documents’ attractiveness and the ease of understanding them; more detailed reactions to the documents were gathered through informant diaries and follow-up interviews. The detailed reactions extended beyond the feedback gathered through the rating task. Informants showed sensitivity to the content, language, design and circumstances of receipt of documents, with indications that they developed opinions of originating organizations based on their experience of using their documents. Documents that failed to provide all the information needed, that failed to make their intentions clear (or obscured their intentions) or that were perceived as miss-targeted received negative comment. Repeat experiences of receiving either well- or poorly-conceived documents strengthened informant reactions to individual originating organizations. The paper concludes with recommendations for steps document originators, writers and designers need to take to prepare documents that enhance organization to consumer communication. We recommend that organizations evaluate and act on consumers’ reactions to their documents, beyond user testing in document development or scorecard ratings in use.

Housing densities and consumer choice

From 2001, the construction of flats and high-density developments increased in England and the building of houses declined. Does this indicate a change in taste or is it a result of government planning policies? In this paper, an analysis is made of the long-term effects of the policy of constraint which has existed for the past 50 years but the increase in density is identified as occurring primarily after new, revised, planning guidance was issued in England in 2000 which discouraged low-density development. To substantiate this, it is pointed out that the change which occurred in England did not occur in Scotland where guidance was not changed to encourage high-density residential development. The conclusion that the change is the result of planning policies and not of a change in taste is confirmed by surveys of the occupants of new high-rise developments in Leeds. The new flat-dwellers were predominantly young and childless and expressed the intention, in the near future, when they could, of moving out of the city centre and into houses. From recent changes in guidance by the new coalition government, it is expected that the construction of flats in England will fall back to earlier levels over the next few years.

The role of the consumer-citizen in environmental protest in the 1990s

This paper links market‐based ‘protest’ strategies, as used recently by environmental protest groups and other sociations, to citizenship theory, seeking to open a debate about the role of the consumer‐citizen. It is suggested that such consumer‐citizenship, whereby protest and political action are encouraged through market mechanisms, and limited through state action, is an important feature of late‐modernity. The paper seeks to illustrate how advanced capitalist societies are producing reworked forms of rights relationships. This is discussed within the context of the rhetoric of ‘active’ citizenship as used in UK politics and through examples of recent environmental protests and other consumer‐citizen strategies.

Making sense of survival: refining the treatment of state preferences in neorealist theory

The assumption that ‘states' primary goal is survival’ lies at the heart of the neorealist paradigm. A careful examination of the assumption, however, reveals that neorealists draw upon a number of distinct interpretations of the ‘survival assumption’ that are then treated as if they are the same, pointing towards conceptual problems that surround the treatment of state preferences. This article offers a specification that focuses on two questions that highlight the role and function of the survival assumption in the neorealist logic: (i) what do states have to lose if they fail to adopt self-help strategies?; and (ii) how does concern for relevant losses motivate state behaviour and affect international outcomes? Answering these questions through the exploration of governing elites' sensitivity towards regime stability and territorial integrity of the state, in turn, addresses the aforementioned conceptual problems. This specification has further implications for the debates among defensive and offensive realists, potential extensions of the neorealist logic beyond the Westphalian states, and the relationship between neorealist theory and policy analysis.

Mobility based energy efficient and multi-sink algorithms for consumer home networks

With the fast development of the Internet, wireless communications and semiconductor devices, home networking has received significant attention. Consumer products can collect and transmit various types of data in the home environment. Typical consumer sensors are often equipped with tiny, irreplaceable batteries and it therefore of the utmost importance to design energy efficient algorithms to prolong the home network lifetime and reduce devices going to landfill. Sink mobility is an important technique to improve home network performance including energy consumption, lifetime and end-to-end delay. Also, it can largely mitigate the hot spots near the sink node. The selection of optimal moving trajectory for sink node(s) is an NP-hard problem jointly optimizing routing algorithms with the mobile sink moving strategy is a significant and challenging research issue. The influence of multiple static sink nodes on energy consumption under different scale networks is first studied and an Energy-efficient Multi-sink Clustering Algorithm (EMCA) is proposed and tested. Then, the influence of mobile sink velocity, position and number on network performance is studied and a Mobile-sink based Energy-efficient Clustering Algorithm (MECA) is proposed. Simulation results validate the performance of the proposed two algorithms which can be deployed in a consumer home network environment.

Typography for children with reading difficulties: preferences for type in reading books

For children with developmental dyslexia the already challenging task of learning to read is made harder by difficulties with phonological processing and perceptual distortions. As a result, these children may be less motivated to practise their literacy skills. This is problematic in that literacy can only be gained through constant and continued exposure to reading scenarios, and children who are unmotivated to practise are unlikely to develop into fluent readers. Children are active in choosing the books they read and it is therefore important to understand how the typography in those books influences their choice. Research with typically developing children has shown that they have clear opinions about the typography in their reading materials and that these opinions are likely to influence their motivation to read particular books. However, it cannot be assumed that children with reading difficulties read and respond to texts in the same way as children who do not struggle. Through case-studies of three children with reading difficulties, preferences for the typography in their reading books is examined. Looking at elements of typesetting such as spacing and size shows that this group of children is aware of differences in typography and that they have preferences for how their reading books are typeset. These children showed a preference for books that resembled those that their peers are reading rather than those that would, by typographic convention, be considered easier to read. This study is part of ongoing research into the development of alternative materials for teaching literacy skills to children with dyslexia.

C-slow retimed parallel histogram architectures for consumer imaging devices

A parallel pipelined array of cells suitable for real-time computation of histograms is proposed. The cell architecture builds on previous work obtained via C-slow retiming techniques and can be clocked at 65 percent faster frequency than previous arrays. The new arrays can be exploited for higher throughput particularly when dual data rate sampling techniques are used to operate on single streams of data from image sensors. In this way, the new cell operates on a p-bit data bus which is more convenient for interfacing to camera sensors or to microprocessors in consumer digital cameras.

Language and thought in bilinguals: the case of grammatical number and nonverbal classification preferences

Recent research shows that speakers of languages with obligatory plural marking (English) preferentially categorize objects based on common shape, whereas speakers of nonplural-marking classifier languages (Yucatec and Japanese) preferentially categorize objects based on common material. The current study extends that investigation to the domain of bilingualism. Japanese and English monolinguals, and Japanese–English bilinguals were asked to match novel objects based on either common shape or color. Results showed that English monolinguals selected shape significantly more than Japanese monolinguals, whereas the bilinguals shifted their cognitive preferences as a function of their second language proficiency. The implications of these findings for conceptual representation and cognitive processing in bilinguals are discussed.

Visualizing probabilistic flood forecast information: expert preferences and perceptions of best practice in uncertainty communication

The aim of this article is to improve the communication of the probabilistic flood forecasts generated by hydrological ensemble prediction systems (HEPS) by understanding perceptions of different methods of visualizing probabilistic forecast information. This study focuses on interexpert communication and accounts for differences in visualization requirements based on the information content necessary for individual users. The perceptions of the expert group addressed in this study are important because they are the designers and primary users of existing HEPS. Nevertheless, they have sometimes resisted the release of uncertainty information to the general public because of doubts about whether it can be successfully communicated in ways that would be readily understood to nonexperts. In this article, we explore the strengths and weaknesses of existing HEPS visualization methods and thereby formulate some wider recommendations about the best practice for HEPS visualization and communication. We suggest that specific training on probabilistic forecasting would foster use of probabilistic forecasts with a wider range of applications. The result of a case study exercise showed that there is no overarching agreement between experts on how to display probabilistic forecasts and what they consider the essential information that should accompany plots and diagrams. In this article, we propose a list of minimum properties that, if consistently displayed with probabilistic forecasts, would make the products more easily understandable. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The significance of occupancy steadiness in residential consumer response to Time of Use pricing: Evidence from a stochastic adjustment model

The recent roll-out of smart metering technologies in several developed countries has intensified research on the impacts of Time-of-Use (TOU) pricing on consumption. This paper analyses a TOU dataset from the Province of Trento in Northern Italy using a stochastic adjustment model. Findings highlight the non-steadiness of the relationship between consumption and TOU price. Weather and active occupancy can partly explain future consumption in relation to price.

An industry viewpoint on the role of farm assurance in delivering food safety to the consumer: the case of the dairy sector in England and Wales

Food safety, alongside food quality, remains a primary concern of both consumers and those along the whole food supply chain, leading to regulation by government alongside private third party certification. Much has been written about the value of these systems primarily from the perception of the consumer. This paper reports on a study that examined industry perceptions on the regulatory and assurance systems within the dairy sector of England and Wales. It found that the primary producer found value in both systems, although from a food hygiene focus regulation was seen to be more rigorous. Other stakeholders along the dairy food supply chain saw the assurance scheme as more rigorous. All stakeholders recognised the need to reduce duplication in delivering food safety through combining key elements of both systems with the added potential for better communication of both food safety and quality to the final consumer.

Monopolistic product line competition with ex post consumer heterogeneity

We model monopolistic competition in product lines, assuming that consumer heterogeneity is the result rather than the cause of product variety. Our results contradict some well-known policy implications yielded by the standard monopolistic competition framework.

The consumer acceptance of novel vegetable-enriched bread products as a potential vehicle to increase vegetable consumption

Currently UK fruit and vegetable intakes are below recommendations. Bread is a staple food consumed by ~95% of adults in western countries. In addition, bread provides an ideal matrix by which functionality can be delivered to the consumer in an accepted food. Therefore, enriching bread with vegetables may be an effective strategy to increase vegetable consumption. This study evaluated consumer acceptance, purchase intent and intention of product replacement of bread enriched with red beetroot, carrot with coriander, red pepper with tomato or white beetroot (80g vegetable per serving of 200g) compared to white control bread (0g vegetable). Consumers (n=120) rated their liking of the breads overall, as well as their liking of appearance, flavour and texture using nine-point hedonic scales. Product replacement and purchase intent of the breads was rated using five-point scales. The effect of providing consumers with health information about the breads was also evaluated. There were significant differences in overall liking (P<0.0001), as well as liking of appearance (P<0.0001), flavour (P=0.0002) and texture (P=0.04), between the breads. However, the significant differences resulted from the red beetroot bread which was significantly (P<0.05) less liked compared to control bread. There were no significant differences in overall liking between any of the other vegetable-enriched breads compared with the control bread (no vegetable inclusion), apart from the red beetroot bread which was significantly less liked. The provision of health information about the breads did not increase consumer liking of the vegetable-enriched breads. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that vegetable-enriched bread appeared to be an acceptable strategy to increase vegetable intake, however, liking depended on vegetable type.