Market orientation of service networks:direct and indirect effects on sustained competitive advantage

Market orientation is an organization-wide concept that helps explain sustained competitive advantage (SCA). Since networks become ever more important, especially in the service sector, there is need to expand the concept of MO to a network setting. In line with Narver and Slater (1990), the concept of Market Orientation of Networks (MONW) is developed. This study indicates how MONW relates to the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and the industrial organization (IO) view in explaining SCA. It is argued that MONW has direct and indirect effects on SCA. More precisely, the antecedent effect of MONW to resources and industry structure is considered.

Perception of risk, feelings of vulnerability and effects on driving behaviour in women drivers across the lifespan.

Sustained driving in older age has implications for quality of life and mental health. Studies have shown that despite the recognised importance of driving in maintaining health and social engagement, many women give up driving prematurely or adopt self-imposed restrictive driving practices. Emotional responses to driving have been implicated in these decisions. This research examined the effect of risk perception and feelings of vulnerability on women’s driving behaviour across the lifespan. It also developed and tested a modified theory of planned behaviour intervention to positively affect driving habits. The first two studies (N=395) used quantitative analysis to model driving behaviours affected by risk perception and feelings of vulnerability, and established that feelings of vulnerability do indeed affect women’s driving behaviour, specifically resulting in increases in driving avoidance and the adoption of maladaptive driving styles. Further, that self-regulation, conceptualised as avoidance, is used by drivers across the lifespan. Qualitative analysis of focus group data (N=48) in the third study provided a deeper understanding of the variations in coping behaviours adopted by sub-groups of drivers and extended the definition of self-regulation to incorporate adaptive coping strategies. The next study (N=64) reported the construction and preliminary validation of the novel self-regulation index (SRI) to measure wider self-regulation behaviours using an objective measure of driving behaviour, a simulated driving task. The understanding gained from the formative research was used in the final study, an extended theory of planned behaviour intervention to promote wider self-regulation behaviour, measured using the previously validated self-regulation index. The intervention achieved moderate success with changes in affective attitude and normative beliefs as well as self-reported behaviour. The results offer promise for self-regulation, incorporating a spectrum of planning and coping behaviours, to be used as a mechanism to assist drivers in achieving their personal mobility goals whilst promoting safe driving.

Pragmatic development of service based real-time change data capture

This thesis makes a contribution to the Change Data Capture (CDC) field by providing an empirical evaluation on the performance of CDC architectures in the context of realtime data warehousing. CDC is a mechanism for providing data warehouse architectures with fresh data from Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) databases. There are two types of CDC architectures, pull architectures and push architectures. There is exiguous data on the performance of CDC architectures in a real-time environment. Performance data is required to determine the real-time viability of the two architectures. We propose that push CDC architectures are optimal for real-time CDC. However, push CDC architectures are seldom implemented because they are highly intrusive towards existing systems and arduous to maintain. As part of our contribution, we pragmatically develop a service based push CDC solution, which addresses the issues of intrusiveness and maintainability. Our solution uses Data Access Services (DAS) to decouple CDC logic from the applications. A requirement for the DAS is to place minimal overhead on a transaction in an OLTP environment. We synthesize DAS literature and pragmatically develop DAS that eciently execute transactions in an OLTP environment. Essentially we develop effeicient RESTful DAS, which expose Transactions As A Resource (TAAR). We evaluate the TAAR solution and three pull CDC mechanisms in a real-time environment, using the industry recognised TPC-C benchmark. The optimal CDC mechanism in a real-time environment, will capture change data with minimal latency and will have a negligible affect on the database's transactional throughput. Capture latency is the time it takes a CDC mechanism to capture a data change that has been applied to an OLTP database. A standard definition for capture latency and how to measure it does not exist in the field. We create this definition and extend the TPC-C benchmark to make the capture latency measurement. The results from our evaluation show that pull CDC is capable of real-time CDC at low levels of user concurrency. However, as the level of user concurrency scales upwards, pull CDC has a significant impact on the database's transaction rate, which affirms the theory that pull CDC architectures are not viable in a real-time architecture. TAAR CDC on the other hand is capable of real-time CDC, and places a minimal overhead on the transaction rate, although this performance is at the expense of CPU resources.

Spillover effects of service failures in coalition loyalty programs:the buffering effect of special treatment benefits

Coalition loyalty programs are on the rise, yet few studies investigate the impact of service failures in such programs. Using data from a retail context, the authors show that a program partner deemed responsible for a service failure suffers negative customer responses. However, customers' perceptions of the benefits of the coalition loyalty program buffer these consequences. Perhaps most importantly, when customers perceive the program's special treatment benefits as low, direct and indirect spillover effects occur, such that a service failure by one program partner has a negative effect on customer loyalty toward the program itself. © 2013 New York University.

A simulation study of service differentiation for the bandwidth request scheme in fixed IEEE 802.16 network

Various flexible mechanisms related to quality of service (QoS) provisioning have been specified for uplink traffic at the medium access control (MAC) layer in the IEEE 802.16 standards. Among the mechanisms, contention based bandwidth request scheme can be used to indicate bandwidth demands to the base station for the non-real-time polling and best-effort services. These two services are used for most applications with unknown traffic characteristics. Due to the diverse QoS requirements of those applications, service differentiation (SD) is anticipated over the contention based bandwidth request scheme. In this paper we investigate the SD with the bandwidth request scheme by means of assigning different channel access parameters and bandwidth allocation priorities at different packets arrival probability. The effectiveness of the differentiation schemes is evaluated by simulations. It is observed that the initial backoff window can be efficient in SD, and if combined with the bandwidth allocation priority, the SD performances will be better.

Changes in neural complexity during the perception of 3D images using random dot stereograms

One developing theme in consciousness research is that consciousness is not the product of any specific component of the brain, rather it is an emergent property of the changing patterns of connectivity between different specialised functional components. For example, the dynamic core hypothesis proposes that conscious experience requires high levels of neural complexity, where complexity is defined in terms of functional connectivity. To test this hypothesis, electroencephalography was recorded while participants were shown random dot-stereograms. Consistent with the dynamic core hypothesis, neural complexity increased as the participants changed from simply viewing the stereogram to consciously perceiving the hidden 3D image.

The impact of service characteristics on the switching costs-customer loyalty link

This research investigates the interrelationship between service characteristics and switching costs and makes two contributions to the service retailing literature: (1) As a means of better understanding the effectiveness of switching costs, the study suggests a two-dimensional typology of switching costs, including internal and external switching costs and (2) it reveals that the effect of these switching costs on customer loyalty is contingent upon four service characteristics (the IHIP characteristics of service). We carried out a meta-analytic review of the literature on the switching costs-customer loyalty link and created a hierarchical linear model using a sample of 1,694 customers from 51 service industries. Results reveal that external switching costs have a stronger average effect on customer loyalty than do internal switching costs. Moreover, we find that IHIP characteristics moderate the links between switching costs and customer loyalty. Thus, the link between external switching costs and customer loyalty is weaker in industries higher in the four service characteristics (as compared to industries lower in these characteristics), while the opposite moderating effect of service characteristics for the internal switching costs-loyalty link is noted. © 2014 New York University.

The influence of face and group orientation on the perception of luxury goods:a four market study of East Asian consumers

Purpose: The paper aims to further extend our understanding by assessing the extent to which two prominent cultural values in East Asia i.e. face saving and group orientation drive consumers' perceptions of luxury goods across four East Asian markets. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-methods research approach was adopted consisting of: an expert panel of close to 70 participants, group discussions with five extended East Asian families, personal interviews with eight East Asian scholars, a pilot test with over 50 East Asian graduate students and a multi-market survey of 443 consumer respondents in Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and Hanoi. Findings: The authors extend previous conceptual studies by empirically investigating the impact of these two cultural values on the perception of luxury among East Asian societies. Specifically the study reveals that across all four markets face saving has the strongest influence on the conspicuous and hedonistic dimensions of luxury, group orientation meanwhile is the strongest predictor of the quality, extended self and exclusivity dimensions of luxury. Collectively these two cultural values significantly influence East Asian perceptions of luxury. Overall, the findings reiterate the importance of understanding different cultural values and their influence across different East Asian societies. Practical implications: The findings have important implications for managers of western luxury branded goods that are seeking to penetrate East Asian markets or seek to serve East Asian consumers. Specifically, to assist with developing suitable brand positioning, products, services, communications and pricing strategies. Originality/value: This study contributes to our understanding of the subject by exploring the impact of face saving and group orientation on the perception of luxury goods across four East Asian countries. Several directions for future research are suggested. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Debate : arm's- length bodies and alternative models of service delivery

This article reflects on the UK coalition government’s ‘alternative models’ agenda, specifically in terms of the adoption of new models of service delivery by arm’s-length bodies (ALBs). It provides an overview of the alternative models agenda and discusses barriers to implementation. These include practical challenges involved in the set up of alternative models, the role of sponsor departments, and the effective communication of best practice. Finally, the article highlights some issues for further discussion.

Quality of Service System Approximation in IP Networks

This paper is sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Bulgaria in the framework of project No 105 “Multimedia Packet Switching Networks Planning with Quality of Service and Traffic Management”.

A Framework for Design-Time Testing of Service-Based Applications at BPEL Level

Software applications created on top of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) are increasingly popular but testing them remains a challenge. In this paper a framework named TASSA for testing the functional and non-functional behaviour of service-based applications is presented. The paper focuses on the concept of design time testing, the corresponding testing approach and architectural integration of the consisting TASSA tools. The individual TASSA tools with sample validation scenarios were already presented with a general view of their relation. This paper’s contribution is the structured testing approach, based on the integral use of the tools and their architectural integration. The framework is based on SOA principles and is composable depending on user requirements.

Health related quality of life and perception of stigmatisation in adolescents living with sickle cell disease in Nigeria:a cross sectional study

Background: Sickle cell disease impacts the physical, emotional and psychological aspects of life of the affected persons, often times exposing them to disease associated stigma from the society and alters the health related quality of life (HRQoL). This study compared the HRQoL of adolescents with sickle cell disease with their healthy peers, identified socio-demographic and clinical factors impacting HRQoL, and determined the extent and effects of SCD related stigma on quality of life. Procedure: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 160 adolescents, 80 with SCD and 80 adolescents without SCD. Socio-demographic and clinical data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire. HRQoL was investigated using the Short Form (SF-36v2) Health Survey. SCD perceived stigma was measured using an adaptation of a perceived stigma questionnaire. Results: Adolescents with SCD have significantly worse HRQoL than their peers in all of the most important dimensions of HRQoL (physical functioning, physical roles limitation, emotional roles limitation, social functioning, bodily pain, vitality and general health perception) except mental health. Recent hospital admission and SCD related complication further lowered HRQoL scores. Over seventy percent of adolescents with SCD have moderate to high level of perception of stigmatisation. Hospitalisation, SCD complication, SCD stigma were inversely, and significantly associated with HRQoL. Conclusions: Adolescents living with SCD in Nigeria have lower health related quality of life compared to their healthy peers. They also experience stigma that impacts their HRQoL. Complications of SCD and hospital admissions contribute significantly to this impairment. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2015;62:1245-1251.

Application of Service-Oriented Architecture in Software Quality Management

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): D.2.5, D.2.9, D.2.11.

Impact of denial of service solutions on network quality of service

The Internet has become a universal communication network tool. It has evolved from a platform that supports best-effort traffic to one that now carries different traffic types including those involving continuous media with quality of service (QoS) requirements. As more services are delivered over the Internet, we face increasing risk to their availability given that malicious attacks on those Internet services continue to increase. Several networks have witnessed denial of service (DoS) and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks over the past few years which have disrupted QoS of network services, thereby violating the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the client and the Internet Service Provider (ISP). Hence DoS or DDoS attacks are major threats to network QoS. In this paper we survey techniques and solutions that have been deployed to thwart DoS and DDoS attacks and we evaluate them in terms of their impact on network QoS for Internet services. We also present vulnerabilities that can be exploited for QoS protocols and also affect QoS if exploited. In addition, we also highlight challenges that still need to be addressed to achieve end-to-end QoS with recently proposed DoS/DDoS solutions. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Perception of global image contrast is predicted by the same spatial integration model of gain control as detection and discrimination

How are the image statistics of global image contrast computed? We answered this by using a contrast-matching task for checkerboard configurations of ‘battenberg’ micro-patterns where the contrasts and spatial spreads of interdigitated pairs of micro-patterns were adjusted independently. Test stimuli were 20 × 20 arrays with various sized cluster widths, matched to standard patterns of uniform contrast. When one of the test patterns contained a pattern with much higher contrast than the other, that determined global pattern contrast, as in a max() operation. Crucially, however, the full matching functions had a curious intermediate region where low contrast additions for one pattern to intermediate contrasts of the other caused a paradoxical reduction in perceived global contrast. None of the following models predicted this: RMS, energy, linear sum, max, Legge and Foley. However, a gain control model incorporating wide-field integration and suppression of nonlinear contrast responses predicted the results with no free parameters. This model was derived from experiments on summation of contrast at threshold, and masking and summation effects in dipper functions. Those experiments were also inconsistent with the failed models above. Thus, we conclude that our contrast gain control model (Meese & Summers, 2007) describes a fundamental operation in human contrast vision.