Showing papers by "City University London published in 2010"

The Impact of New Media on Customer Relationships

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed the rise of new media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Google, and Twitter, which enable customers to take a more active role as market players and reach (and be reached by) almost everyone anywhere and anytime. These new media threaten long established business models and corporate strategies, but also provide ample opportunities for growth through new adaptive strategies. This paper introduces a new ‘‘pinball’’ framework of new media’s impact on relationships with customers and identifies key new media phenomena which companies should take into account when managing their relationships with customers in the new media universe. For each phenomenon, we identify challenges for researchers and managers which relate to (a) the understanding of consumer behavior, (b) the use of new media to successfully manage customer interactions, and (c) the effective measurement of customers’ activities and outcomes.

Islamic vs. Conventional Banking: Business Model, Efficiency and Stability

Abstract: This paper discusses Islamic banking products and interprets them in the context of financial intermediation theory. Anecdotal evidence shows that many of the conventional products can be redrafted as Sharia-compliant products, so that the differences are smaller than expected. Comparing conventional and Islamic banks and controlling for other bank and country characteristics, the authors find few significant differences in business orientation, efficiency, asset quality, or stability. While Islamic banks seem more cost-effective than conventional banks in a broad cross-country sample, this finding reverses in a sample of countries with both Islamic and conventional banks. However, conventional banks that operate in countries with a higher market share of Islamic banks are more cost-effective but less stable. There is also consistent evidence of higher capitalization of Islamic banks and this capital cushion plus higher liquidity reserves explains the relatively better performance of Islamic banks during the recent crisis.

The top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture

Abstract: Despite a significant growth in food production over the past half-century, one of the most important challenges facing society today is how to feed an expected population of some nine billion by the middle of the 20th century. To meet the expected demand for food without significant increases in prices, it has been estimated that we need to produce 70-100 per cent more food, in light of the growing impacts of climate change, concerns over energy security, regional dietary shifts and the Millennium Development target of halving world poverty and hunger by 2015. The goal for the agricultural sector is no longer simply to maximize productivity, but to optimize across a far more complex landscape of production, rural development, environmental, social justice and food consumption outcomes. However, there remain significant challenges to developing national and international policies that support the wide emergence of more sustainable forms of land use and efficient agricultural production. The lack of information flow between scientists, practitioners and policy makers is known to exacerbate the difficulties, despite increased emphasis upon evidence-based policy. In this paper, we seek to improve dialogue and understanding between agricultural research and policy by identifying the 100 most important questions for global agriculture. These have been compiled using a horizon-scanning approach with leading experts and representatives of major agricultural organizations worldwide. The aim is to use sound scientific evidence to inform decision making and guide policy makers in the future direction of agricultural research priorities and policy support. If addressed, we anticipate that these questions will have a significant impact on global agricultural practices worldwide, while improving the synergy between agricultural policy, practice and research. This research forms part of the UK Government's Foresight Global Food and Farming Futures project.

Space, time and visual analytics

Abstract: Visual analytics aims to combine the strengths of human and electronic data processing. Visualisation, whereby humans and computers cooperate through graphics, is the means through which this is achieved. Seamless and sophisticated synergies are required for analysing spatio-temporal data and solving spatio-temporal problems. In modern society, spatio-temporal analysis is not solely the business of professional analysts. Many citizens need or would be interested in undertaking analysis of information in time and space. Researchers should find approaches to deal with the complexities of the current data and problems and find ways to make analytical tools accessible and usable for the broad community of potential users to support spatio-temporal thinking and contribute to solving a large range of problems.

The effectiveness of interprofessional education: Key findings from a new systematic review

Abstract: Over the past decade systematic reviews of interprofessional education (IPE) have provided a more informed understanding of the effects of this type of education. This paper contributes to this literature by reporting an update of a Cochrane systematic review published in this journal ten years ago (Zwarenstein et al., 1999 ). In updating this initial review, our current work involved searches of a number of electronic databases from 1999-2006, as well as reference lists, books, conference proceedings and websites. Like the previous review, only studies which employed randomized controlled trials, controlled-before and-after-studies and interrupted time series studies of IPE, and that reported validated professional practice and health care outcomes, were included. While the first review found no studies which met its inclusion criteria, the updated review located six IPE studies. This paper aims to add to the ongoing development of evidence for IPE. Despite some useful progress being made in relation to strengthening the evidence base for IPE, the paper concludes by stressing that further rigorous mixed method studies of IPE are needed to provide a greater clarity of IPE and its effects on professional practice and patient/client care.

Returnee entrepreneurs, knowledge spillovers and innovation in high-tech firms in emerging economies

Abstract: Using panel data analysis, this paper investigates the impact of returnee entrepreneurs, foreign direct investment (FDI) intensity and inter-firm employee mobility on innovation in Chinese high-tech firms. International technology spillovers and internal R&D efforts are found to jointly determine the innovation performance of Chinese high-tech firms, and we report that the presence of returnee entrepreneurs positively affects innovation. In addition, there are significant knowledge spillover effects associated with returnees and multinational enterprise (MNE) employee mobility, and the effects of these two components of international human mobility on local firms' innovation are mutually reinforcing. We also present the distinctive result that FDI intensity in an industry has a negative impact on local innovation. The findings have important implications for practitioners and policymakers.

Integrability and the AdS 3/CFT 2 correspondence

Abstract: We investigate the AdS 3/CFT 2 correspondence for theories with 16 supercharges using the integrability approach. We construct Green-Schwarz actions for Type IIB strings on AdS 3 × S 3× M 4 where M 4 = T 4 or S 3 × S 1 using the coset approach. These actions are based on a Z4 automorphism of the super-coset D(2, 1; α) × D(2, 1; α)/SO(1, 2) × SO(3)×SO(3). The equations of motion admit a representation in terms of a Lax connection, showing that the system is classically integrable. We present the finite gap equations for these actions. When α = 0, 1/2, 1 we propose a set of quantum Bethe equations valid at all values of the coupling. The AdS 3/CFT 2 duals contain novel massless modes whose role remains to be explored.

Psychological distress after stroke and aphasia: the first six months

Abstract: Objective: We explored the factors that predicted psychological distress in the first six months post stroke in a sample including people with aphasia.Design: Prospective longitudinal observational study.Setting and subjects: Participants with a first stroke from two acute stroke units were assessed while still in hospital (baseline) and at three and six months post stroke.Main measures: Distress was assessed with the General Health Questionnaire-12. Other measures included: NIH Stroke Scale, Barthel Index, Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test, Frenchay Activities Index, MOS Social Support Scale and social network indicators. Logistic regression was used to identify predictors of distress at each stage post stroke; and to determine what baseline factors predicted distress at six months.Results: Eighty-seven participants were able to self-report on measures used, of whom 32 (37%) had aphasia. 71 (82%) were seen at six months, including 11 (16%) with aphasia. Predictors of distress were: stroke severity at basel...

Visualisation of Origins, Destinations and Flows with OD Maps

Abstract: We present a new technique for the visual exploration of origins (O) and destinations (D) arranged in geographic space. Previous attempts to map the flows between origins and destinations have suffered from problems of occlusion usually requiring some form of generalisation, such as aggregation or flow density estimation before they can be visualized. This can lead to loss of detail or the introduction of arbitrary artefacts in the visual representation. Here, we propose mapping OD vectors as cells rather than lines, comparable with the process of constructing OD matrices, but unlike the OD matrix, we preserve the spatial layout of all origin and destination locations by constructing a gridded two-level spatial treemap. The result is a set of spatially ordered small multiples upon which any arbitrary geographic data may be projected. Using a hash grid spatial data structure, we explore the characteristics of the technique through a software prototype that allows interactive query and visua...

Patient-reported outcome measures in the NHS: new methods for analysing and reporting EQ-5D data.

Abstract: In a landmark move, the UK Department of Health (DH) has introduced the routine collection of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to measure the performance of health-care providers. From April 2009, generic (EQ-5D) and condition-specific PROMs are being collected from patients before and after four surgical procedures; eventually this will be extended to include a wide range of other NHS services. The aim of this article is to report analysis of the EQ-5D data generated from a pilot study commissioned by the DH and to consider the implications for the use of EQ-5D data in performance indicators and measures of patient benefit. We present two new methods that we have developed for analysing and displaying EQ-5D profile data: a Paretian Classification of Health Change and a health profile grid. We show that EQ-5D profile data can be readily analysed to generate insights into the nature of changes in patient-reported health that would be obscured by summarising these profiles by their index scores, or focusing just on the post operative outcomes. Our methods indicate differences between providers and between sub-groups of patients. Our results also show striking differences in changes in EQ-5D profiles between surgical procedures, which require further investigation.

Exploring positive monad bundles and a new heterotic standard model

Abstract: A complete analysis of all heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications based on positive two-term monad bundles over favourable complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds is performed. We show that the original data set of about 7000 models contains 91 standard-like models which we describe in detail. A closer analysis of Wilson-line breaking for these models reveals that none of them gives rise to precisely the matter field content of the standard model. We conclude that the entire set of positive two-term monads on complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds is ruled out on phenomenological grounds. We also take a first step in analyzing the larger class of non-positive monads. In particular, we construct a supersymmetric heterotic standard model within this class. This model has the standard model gauge group and an additional U(1)B−L symmetry, precisely three families of quarks and leptons, one pair of Higgs doublets and no anti-families or exotics of any kind.

Comparison of implicit and explicit feedback from an online music recommendation service

Abstract: Explicit and implicit feedback exhibits different characteristics of users' preferences with both pros and cons. However, a combination of these two types of feedback provides another paradigm for recommender systems (RS). Their combination in a user preference model presents a number of challenges but can also overcome the problems associated with each other. In order to build an effective RS on combination of both types of feedback, we need to have comparative data allowing an understanding of the computation of user preferences. In this paper, we provide an overview of the differentiating characteristics of explicit and implicit feedback using datasets mined from Last.fm, an online music station and recommender service. The datasets consisted of explicit positive feedback (by loving tracks) and implicit feedback which is inherently positive (the number of times a track is played). Rather than relying on just one type of feedback, we present techniques for extracting user preferences from both. In order to compare and contrast the performances of these techniques, we carried out experiments using the Taste recommender system engine and the Last.fm datasets. Our results show that implicit and explicit positive feedback complements each other, with similar performances despite their different characteristics.

Episodic memory and episodic future thinking in adults with autism

Abstract: The ability to remember past experiences (episodic memory) is thought to be related to the ability to imagine possible future experiences (episodic future thinking). Although previous research has established that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have diminished episodic memory, episodic future thinking has not previously been investigated within this population. In the present study, high-functioning adults with ASD were compared to closely matched typical adults on a task requiring participants to report a series of events that happened to them in the past and a series of events that might happen to them in the future. For each event described, participants completed two modified Memory Characteristics Questionnaire items to assess self-reported phenomenal qualities associated with remembering and imagining, including self-perspective and degree of autonoetic awareness. Participants also completed letter, category, and ideational fluency tasks. Results indicated that participants with ASD recalled/imagined significantly fewer specific events than did comparison participants and that participants with ASD demonstrated impaired episodic memory and episodic future thinking. In line with this finding, participants with ASD were less likely than comparison participants to report taking a field (first-person) perspective and were more likely to report taking an observer (third-person) perspective during retrieval of past events (but not during simulation of future events), highlighting that they were less likely to mentally reexperience past events from their own point of view. There were no group differences in self-reported levels of autonoetic awareness or fluency task performance.

The effect of consumer confusion proneness on word of mouth, trust, and customer satisfaction

Abstract: Purpose – Consumer sovereignty assumes that consumers have adequate product information and are able to understand that information in order to make an informed choice. However, this is not the case when consumers are confused. Recently, Walsh et al. identified dimensions of consumer confusion proneness and developed scales to measure these dimensions. Drawing on their concept of consumer confusion proneness, this paper seeks to examine consumers' general tendency to be confused from marketplace information and its effect on three relevant outcome variables – word of mouth, trust, and satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach – The reliability and validity of the consumer confusion proneness scale was tested on the basis of a sample of 355 consumers, using confirmatory factor analysis. The study employs structural equation modelling to examine the hypothesised relationships.Findings – The results show that the consumer confusion proneness scale has sound psychometric properties and that the three dimension...

Gender relations as causal in militarization and war

Abstract: Based on empirical research among women's antiwar organizations worldwide, the article derives a feminist oppositional standpoint on militarization and war. From this standpoint, patriarchal gender relations are seen to be intersectional with economic and ethno-national power relations in perpetuating a tendency to armed conflict in human societies. The feminism generated in antiwar activism tends to be holistic, and understands gender in patriarchy as a relation of power underpinned by coercion and violence. The cultural features of militarization and war readily perceived by women positioned in or close to armed conflict, and their sense of war as systemic and as a continuum, make its gendered nature visible. There are implications in this perspective for antiwar movements. If gender relations are one of the root causes of war, a feminist programme of gender transformation is a necessary component of the pursuit of peace.

Crisis? What Crisis? The Normality of the Current Food Crisis

Abstract: The 2005–8 food crisis was a shock to political elites, but in some respects the situation was normal. Food policies are failing to respond adequately to the squeeze on land, people, health and environment. Strong evidence of systems failure and stress, termed here New Fundamentals, ought to reframe twenty-first century food politics and effort. Yet so far, international discourse is too often narrow and technical. The paper suggests that 2005–8 reinforced how the dominant twentieth century productionist policy paradigm is running out of steam. This assumed that producing more food would resolve social problems. Yet distortions in markets, access and culture remain. At national and international levels of governance, despite realization of the enormity of the challenge ahead, there is still a belief in slow incremental change.

The Role of Parent Brand Quality for Service Brand Extension Success

Abstract: Although substantial differences between product quality and service quality have spurred service research for the past 30 years, studies of brand extension success drivers in a services context measure the core driver of parent brand quality, using scales developed for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). This study instead assesses parent brand quality with a context-specific measure, drawn from service quality research, and analyzes the relative effects of key brand extension success drivers for services. Partial least squares (PLS) modeling offers diagnostic information about the impact of three dimensions of perceived parent brand quality on the perceived service quality of an extension product, a key success metric for service brand extensions. In contrast with previous studies, the dominant success driver is parent brand quality rather than the perceived fit between the parent brand and the extension. Moreover, all three dimensions of parent brand quality constitute distinct drivers that should be co...

Tactical Allocation in Commodity Futures Markets: Combining Momentum and Term Structure Signals

Abstract: This paper examines the combined role of momentum and term structure signals for the design of profitable trading strategies in commodity futures markets With significant annualized alphas of 1014% and 1266% respectively, the momentum and term structure strategies appear profitable when implemented individually With an abnormal return of 2102%, a novel double-sort strategy that exploits both momentum and term structure signals clearly outperforms the single-sort strategies This double-sort strategy can additionally be utilized as a portfolio diversification tool Interestingly, the abnormal performance of the double-sort portfolios cannot be explained by a lack of liquidity or data mining and is robust to transaction costs and to different specifications of the risk-return trade-off

International migration and adverse birth outcomes: role of ethnicity, region of origin and destination

Abstract: Background The literature on international migration and birth outcomes shows mixed results. This study examined whether low birth weight (LBW) and preterm birth differed between non-migrants and migrant subgroups, defined by race/ethnicity and world region of origin and destination. Methods A systematic review and meta-regression analyses were conducted using three-level logistic models to account for the heterogeneity between studies and between subgroups within studies. Results Twenty-four studies, involving more than 30 million singleton births, met the inclusion criteria. Compared with US-born black women, black migrant women were at lower odds of delivering LBW and preterm birth babies. Hispanic migrants also exhibited lower odds for these outcomes, but Asian and white migrants did not. Sub-Saharan African and LatinAmerican and Caribbean women were at higher odds of delivering LBW babies in Europe but not in the USA and south-central Asians were at higher odds in both continents, compared with the native-born populations. Conclusions The association between migration and adverse birth outcomes varies by migrant subgroup and it is sensitive to the definition of the migrant and reference groups.

Complications of intestinal stomas.

Abstract: Background: Stomal complications are prevalent and associated with considerable morbidity. This study examined the incidence and potential risk factors for their development. Methods: The time of onset and presence of ten specific complications were recorded for patients with an intestinal stoma over 10 years at two urban hospitals. A database was established with 20 explanatory variables (such as common medical co‐morbidities) derived from the stomatherapy and medical records. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to identify potential risk factors for the development of complications. Results: Some 1216 patients (mean age 64 years) with a minimum of 2 years' follow‐up were included, of whom 544 (44·7 per cent) underwent surgery for malignancy and 647 (53·2 per cent) had a colostomy formed. There were 1219 complications in total; 807 major complications (excluding excoriation and slough) occurred in 564 patients (46·4 per cent), of which the commonest was parastomal hernia (171, 14·1 per cent). On multivariable analysis, musculoskeletal co‐morbidity (odds ratio (OR) 1·79, 95 per cent confidence interval 1·05 to 3·07; P = 0·032), cancer (OR 1·48, 1·13 to 1·93; P = 0·004) and high American Association of Anesthesiologists score (OR = 3·80, 2·14 to 6·75; P < 0·001) were associated with an increased risk of complications. Preoperative siting was associated with a reduced risk (OR 0·59, 0·39 to 0·90; P = 0·014). Conclusion: Intestinal stomal complications are common, occurring in almost half of patients. There are certain irremediable risk factors, allowing appropriate preoperative counselling.

Theory of own mind in autism Evidence of a specific deficit in self-awareness?

Abstract: Assuming that self-awareness is not a unitary phenomenon, and that one can be aware of different aspects of self at any one time, it follows that selective impairments in self-awareness can occur. This article explores the idea that autism involves a particular deficit in awareness of the 'psychological self', or 'theory of own mind'. This hypothesised deficit renders individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at least as impaired at recognising their own mental states as at recognising mental states in other people. This deficit, it is argued, stands in contrast to an apparently typical awareness of the 'physical self' amongst people with autism. Theoretical implications of the empirical evidence are discussed.

Integration and efficiency convergence in EU banking markets

Abstract: Evidence of financial integration and convergence are considered of importance in assessing the outcome of EU deregulation policies aimed at improving the efficiency and performance of banking sectors. This paper evaluates the recent dynamics of bank cost efficiency by means of data envelopment analysis (DEA). Borrowing from the growth literature, we apply dynamic panel data models (GMM) to the concepts of β-convergence and σ-convergence to assess the speed at which banking markets are integrating. We also employ a partial adjustment model to evaluate convergence towards best practice. Results seem to provide supporting evidence of convergence of efficiency levels towards an EU average. Nevertheless, there is no evidence of an overall improvement of efficiency levels towards best practice.

Credit ratings failures and policy options

Abstract: This paper examines the role of credit rating agencies in the subprime crisis that triggered the 2007–2008 financial turmoil. We focus on two aspects of ratings that contributed to the boom and bust of the market for structured debt: rating inflation and coarse information disclosure. The paper discusses how regulation can be designed to mitigate these problems in the future. Our preferred policy is to require rating agencies to be paid by investors rather than by issuers and to grant open and free access to data about the loans or securities underlying structured debt products. A more modest (but less effective) approach would be to retain the ‘issuer pays’ model but require issuers to pay an upfront fee irrespective of the rating, ban ‘credit shopping’, and prescribe a more complete format for the information that rating agencies must disseminate. — Marco Pagano and Paolo Volpin

Securitization, Transparency and Liquidity

Abstract: We present a model in which issuers of structured bonds choose coarse and opaque ratings to enhance the liquidity of their primary market, at the cost of reducing secondary market liquidity or even causing it to freeze. The degree of transparency is inefficiently low if the social value of secondary market liquidity exceeds its private value. We analyze various types of public intervention - requiring transparency for rating agencies, providing liquidity to distressed banks or supporting secondary market prices - and find that their welfare implications are quite different. Finally, transparency is greater if issuers restrain the issue size, or tranche it so as to sell the more information-sensitive tranche to sophisticated investors only.

Memory and the self in autism: A review and theoretical framework

Abstract: This article reviews research on (a) autobiographical episodic and semantic memory, (b) the self-reference effect, (c) memory for the actions of self versus other (the self-enactment effect), and (d) non-autobiographical episodic memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and provides a theoretical framework to account for the bidirectional relationship between memory and the self in ASD. It is argued that individuals with ASD have diminished psychological self-knowledge (as a consequence of diagnostic social and communication impairments), alongside intact physical self-knowledge, resulting in an under-elaborated self-concept. Consequently, individuals with ASD show impaired autobiographical episodic memory and a reduced self-reference effect (which may each rely on psychological aspects of the self-concept) but do not show specific impairments in memory for their own rather than others’ actions (which may rely on physical aspects of the self-concept). However, it is also argued that memory impairments in...