University of Massachusetts Amherst

About: University of Massachusetts Amherst is a education organization based out in Amherst Center, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Galaxy. The organization has 37274 authors who have published 83965 publications receiving 3834996 citations. The organization is also known as: UMass Amherst & Massachusetts State College.

Explaining the Discrepancy between Intentions and Actions: The Case of Hypothetical Bias in Contingent Valuation

Abstract: An experiment was designed to account for intention-behavior discrepancies by applying the theory of planned behavior to contingent valuation. College students (N = 160) voted in hypothetical and real payment referenda to contribute $8 to a scholarship fund. Overestimates of willingness to pay in the hypothetical referendum could not be attributed to moderately favorable latent dispositions. Instead, this hypothetical bias was explained by activation of more favorable beliefs and attitudes in the context of a hypothetical rather than a real referendum. A corrective entreaty was found to eliminate this bias by bringing beliefs, attitudes, and intentions in line with those in the real payment situation. As a result, the theory of planned behavior produced more accurate prediction of real payment when participants were exposed to the corrective entreaty.

Foot and word in prosodic morphology: The Arabic broken plural

Abstract: This article proposes a theory of prosodic domain circumscription, by means of which rules sensitive to morphological domain may be restricted to a prosodically characterized (sub-)domain in a word or stem. The theory is illustrated primarily by a comprehensive analysis of the Arabic broken plural; it is further supported by analysis of a number of processes from other languages, yielding a formal typology of domain-circumscription effects. The results obtained here depend on, and therefore confirm, two central principles of Prosodic Morphology: (1) the Prosodic Morphology Hypothesis, which requires that templates be expressed in prosodic, not segmental terms; and (2) the Template Satisfaction Condition, which requires that all elements in templates are satisfied obligatorily.

Browsers or Buyers in Cyberspace? An Investigation of Factors Influencing Electronic Exchange

Abstract: In its current form, the Internet is primarily a source of communication, information and entertainment but increasingly also a vehicle for commercial transactions. An understanding of reasons for purchasing on the World Wide Web is particularly relevant in the context of predictions made regarding electronic shopping in the future. In the paper, we focus on some of the antecedents to electronic exchange in the online context. In particular, what are some of the factors influencing online purchasing behavior? What is the role of privacy and security concerns in influencing actual purchase behavior? How do vendor and customer characteristics influence consumers' propensity to engage in transactions on the Internet? We analyze secondary data from an e-mail survey. The study has implications for both theory and practice. The findings extend our knowledge of factors influencing marketing exchange from the traditional setting to the internet context. In addition, the findings regarding factors enhancing the propensity to shop online have implications for internet retailers seeking to enlarge their online customer base.

Corporate Responses in an Emerging Climate Regime: The Institutionalization and Commensuration of Carbon Disclosure

Abstract: This paper examines corporate responses to climate change in relation to the development of reporting mechanisms for greenhouse gases, more specifically carbon disclosure. It first presents some background and context on the evolution of carbon trading and disclosure, and then develops a conceptual framework using theories of global governance, institutional theory, and commensuration to understand the role of carbon disclosure in the emerging climate regime. Subsequently a closer look is taken at carbon disclosure and reporting mechanisms, with a particular focus on the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Our analysis of responses shows that CDP has been successfully using institutional investors to urge firms to disclose extensive information about their climate change activities. However, although response rates in terms of numbers of disclosing firms are impressive and growing, neither the level of carbon disclosure that CDP promotes nor the more detailed carbon accounting provide information that is particularly valuable for investors, NGOs, or policymakers at this stage. As a project of commensuration, carbon disclosure has achieved some progress in technical terms, but much less with regard to the cognitive and value dimensions.

Ad hoc QoS on-demand routing (AQOR) in mobile ad hoc networks

Abstract: We introduce a resource reservation-based routing and signaling algorithm, Ad hoc Qos on-demand routing (AQOR), that provides end-to-end quality of service (QoS) support, in terms of bandwidth and end-to-end delay, in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). The increasing use of MANETs for transferring multimedia applications such as voice, video and data, leads to the need to provide QoS support. To perform accurate admission control and resource reservation in AQOR, we have developed detailed computations that allow us to estimate the available bandwidth and end-to-end delay in unsynchronized wireless environment. AQOR also includes efficient mechanisms for QoS maintenance, including temporary reservation and destination-initiated recovery processes. The performance of AQOR is studied in detail by simulation using OPNET Modeler. The results validate that AQOR provides QoS support in ad hoc wireless networks with high reliability and low overhead.