Showing papers on "Quality (business) published in 1982"

Guide to Quality Control

Abstract: This book builds upon the articles and exercises concerning QC which the editorial committee of Quality Control for the Foreman originally wrote for the magazine

Consumer information, product quality, and seller reputation

Abstract: This article analyzes markets in which consumers are imperfectly informed about product quality. An important force that prevents deterioration of the quality supplied by sellers is the formation of firm-specific reputations. It is shown in general that reputations, because they can reward high quality production only with a lag, can work only imperfectly. Viewing reputation as an expectation of quality, this article studies the properties of quality expectations that are fulfilled. When sellers set quality once and for all, any self-fulfilling quality level must lie below the perfect information quality level. The same is true of steady-state quality levels when sellers can vary quality over time. Finally, the relationship between consumer information and product quality is explored.

Variations in Decision Makers' Use of Information Sources: The Impact of Quality and Accessibility of Information

Abstract: Variations in the reported frequency of use of four information sources by decision makers was investigated. Although the perceived quality of information available for decision making was related ...

Validation, Verification, and Testing of Computer Software

Abstract: Software quahty is achieved through the apphcatlon of development techniques and the use of verification procedures throughout the development process Careful consideratmn of specific quality attmbutes and validation reqmrements leads to the selection of a balanced collection of review, analysis, and testing techmques for use throughout the life cycle. This paper surveys current verification, validation, and testing approaches and discusses their strengths, weaknesses, and life-cycle usage. In conjunction with these, the paper describes automated tools used to nnplement vahdation, verification, and testmg. In the discussion of new research thrusts, emphasis is gwen to the continued need to develop a stronger theoretical basis for testing and the need to employ combinations of tools and techniques that may vary over each apphcation.

Optimal giving-up times and the marginal value theorem

Abstract: Krebs et al. (1974) predicted that an optimal forager in a patchy habitat should apply the same giving-up time (GUT) to all patches, even if they differ in quality. This prediction has repeatedly appeared in the literature. However, it is based on a model which is not designed to predict GUT's. When an analogous model is derived which is designed to predict optimal GUT's, it is found that larger GUT's should be used in better quality patches. This result suggests a forager should be more persistent in patches it knows are good than in ones it knows are poor. Under the proposed definition of "better quality," it also follows that, on the average, more time will be spent in better quality patches, and a greater yield will be obtained. Increasing the mean interpatch travel time increases the optimal GUT's, as well as the mean patch yields and residence times. The theoretical development employed to predict optimal GUT's is not restricted to this strategy. Rather, by simply renaming certain quantities which a...

Quality, Cost, and Health: An Integrative Model

Abstract: This article presents an integrative model of the relations among health status, quality of care, and resource expenditure. It defines medical care quality in terms of outcomes, measured as the expected improvements in health status attributable to care. The consideration of how quality so defined i

Disorders of the foot

Abstract: ous descriptions of the "approach" to problems; each is sufficiently com¬ plete that the neophyte can avoid many pitfalls, yet brief enough that the reader is not discouraged from using a new technique. Despite multi¬ ple authorship, the chapters are of uniform style and quality. A special bonus is the chapter on nursing care, which summarizes in a few short pages how to prepare the patient for an interventional procedure, and what the patient may expect after¬ wards. In summary, this book can be rec¬ ommended for radiologists interested in expanding their interventional role with the help of expert advice from experienced practitioners.

Change in organizations

Abstract: : This book is a collection of essays on change. Its purpose is to sharpen our conceptualizations of change. The audience is anyone concerned with developing his or her theoretical view of change. At the conclusion there is no neatly drawn theory of change. We do not see that the current state of knowledge as represented in the literature supports such an endeavor. Nor is it clear that such a theory could be constructed in the near future. Neither is the book a comprehensive statement about change. Although this first chapter provides a brief status report on the change literature, the principal essays only sample certain domains of change. A casual reflection on change should indicate that it encompasses almost all our concepts in the organizational behavior literature. Think about leadership motivation, organizational environment, and roles. It is impossible to think about these and other concepts without inquiring about change. Our strategy is not to be comprehensive but to focus on some central concepts or processes about change that may be generalizable over different topic areas. We selected the book title because it focuses attention on change in organizations rather than solely on changing organizations. We are interested in change at the individual, group, organization, or organizational-environment interface, but not in particular organizations such as schools, business, or governments.

Ambiguous Changes in Product Quality

Abstract: Economic goods are frequently sold according to a price per unit "quantity" where the quantity characteristic does not measure all the economically important characteristics of the good. Milk is sold by the quart, automobiles rented by the mile, physicians' services bought by the visit, and tennis lessons by the hour. In all cases, heterogeneous units are available in the market and the price per unit quantity depends upon the amount of the unpriced characteristic contained in each unit. The per quart price of milk depends upon the butterfat content, the mileage costs of automobile rentals on the cars' make, and the price per unit time for personal services on the providers' skill and training. The common distinction made between these variants of the same good is that they differ in quality, where quality refers to the amounts of the unpriced attributes contained in each unit of the priced attribute.' Thus, milk is packaged according to the attribute "milk liquid" and the quality of milk refers to the ratio of butterfat per unit of liquid.2 This paper considers some of the unique aspects of the economics of supply and demand under this situation where products contain (at least) two desired attributes, only one of which is quantified and measured prior to purchase. Product quality is here defined by the ratio of the second "quality" attribute per unit of the measured quantity attribute.3 This simple specification of quality allows a direct link between standard economic models of related products and the economics of variable product quality. Previous analyses which treat quality simply as a shift parameter in the demand function are shown to obscure the actual subtleties of supply and demand with variable, endogenous quality.4 The paper proceeds by first examining the efficient quality and quantity, and the competitive equilibrium. The market equilibrium under monopoly is then contrasted in the second section. The general theme of the

Prices and Qualities in Markets with Costly Information

Abstract: This paper extends the seminal work of Akerlof, and Salop and Stiglitz in two directions: (i) the sellers can select both the selling prices and quality levels of their good, and (ii) the buyers can acquire price/quality information about individual sellers at a cost. We observe multiple price/quality combinations in equilibrium, which depend upon the distribution of information costs of consumers and upon whether quality, or price, or both are costly observable. Welfare comparisons of equilibrium are considered. We show that welfare will be greater when price advertising is permitted.

The power motive as an influence on group decision making.

Abstract: An experiment was conducted with college students to determine both the influence of the group leader's power motivation and the group's cohesiveness on quality of group decision making. Forty groups of five students came together to discuss a business study case that concerned whether a company should market a new microwave oven. Each member of the group had a different role—company president, manager of production, and so forth—and each had a role sheet specifying items of information available to that person and not to other members of the group. The case was designed to feature most of the characteristics that Janis sees as identifying the kinds of policy decisions that produce groupthink. Need for power was assessed by means of the Thematic Apperception Test measure devised by Winter. Students scoring among the top and bottom quarter of those taking the test were selected as group leaders, and an attempt was made to create group cohesiveness in half the groups by offering a group reward to the group that performed best. Groups whose leaders scored low on n Power brought more factual information from their role sheets into group discussion and also considered more action proposals than did groups headed by leaders who scored high in power motivation. Group cohesiveness was not found to have any effect on the quality of the decision-making process.

Imported Versus U.S.‐Produced Apparel: Consumer Views and Buying Patterns

Abstract: In the current controversy over limitation of imported apparel products into the U.S., con sumers have had little opportunity to be heard. This study sought to determine consumers' views of imported versus U.S.-produced apparel, to determine the product qualities which influence the consumer to buy one over the other and to examine consumer views toward imported apparel in relation to various purchasing practices and demographic variables. A structured telephone interview schedule was used by trained callers in a survey of 408 con sumers chosen randomly from telephone directories in 10 selected areas of the Eastern U.S. In general, consumers did not appear indifferent or apathetic to the issue of whether the apparel they buy has been produced in the U.S. or another country. A majority of the consumers took notice of whether clothing was imported and preferred to have domestically produced apparel, primarily because they perceived garments produced in other countries as being of poorer quality. A summary of the relationships between consumers' views toward imported apparel and some of the demographic variables and purchasing practices of the respondents indicated that in many ways concern over imported apparel appears to be a middle-socioeconomic class phenomenon.

An Assessment of the Academic and Social Influences on Freshman Year Educational Outcomes

Abstract: Institutionally controllable sources of influence on five, freshman-year educational outcomes: grade performance, academic growth—content, academic growth—process, personal growth, and preparation for the future are identified. The frequency and quality of contact with faculty members, level of involvement in classroom activities, and students’ institutional and goal commitments were found to have a unique and reliable influence on a variety of freshman year educational outcomes.

An Exploration of Competitive Signalling Equilibria with "Third Party" Information Production: The Case of Debt Insurance

Abstract: In markets in which sellers know more about product quality than buyers, but cannot convey their superior information either by directly issuing costly signals of the Spence type or by successfully funding the production of information, I suggest another way in which the informational asymmetry problem can be resolved; a third party can produce the necessary information at a cost and use it to price a service consumed by the sellers. Buyers can then observe a seller's choice of service consumption level and be well informed in equilibrium. In this framework I construct a model in which a borrower's choice of insurance coverage signals its default probability to lenders, and explore the properties of the resulting signalling equilibrium in a variety of cases. SUBSEQUENT TO AKERLOF 'S PROVOCATIVE paper [1], the analysis of equilibria in markets with asymmetrically informed agents has been the subject of considerable enquiry. Akerlof's novel insight was the observation that such markets can fail in the sense that the demand, at any price, is zero. This market failure can be prevented, however, if a priori imperfectly informed buyers of a given product can somehow revise their initial conditional estimates of product quality so that prices are consistent with quality in an equilibrium. Bhattacharya [2, 3], Ross [9], and Spence [12, 13, 14] have suggested that one way of achieving this is to allow sellers of the product or service to issue costly signals of the quality offered for sale: in a rational equilibrium, prospective buyers could use these signals to discriminate accurately between products of differing quality. Campbell and Kracaw [4] have recently suggested another possibility-that sellers can make side-payments to information producers to acquire the necessary information at a cost and convey it to the market. This paper explores yet another distinct way of resolving the information asymmetry problem. The market structure considered here involves three parties: a group of sellers, each aware of the quality of its own product; a set of buyers who perhaps satisfy the rational-expectations assumption that they are aware of the average quality of the products in the market, but are unable to distinguish one seller from the other on the basis of product quality; and "third-party" information producers who expend resources to produce information about the quality of each product offered for sale. These information producers recover the cost of information acquisition by using their knowledge to structure and price some fixed-quality service that they provide to

The Living Quality of Music

Abstract: This chapter is concerned with the nature of the language of expressive qualities in music. Its three sections consist of (I) Theoretical introduction; (II) Experimental work in the study of dynamic expressive form; (III) Applications to music.

Some Stochastic Processes of Interdependent Demand and Technological Diffusion of an Innovation Exhibiting Externalities Among Adopters

Abstract: One frequently hears the opinion that as twentieth century society becomes more complex, technological change assumes more significance and occurs at a more r apid pace. Investment in researclh and development results in a myriad of potential innovations. Yet, as the frontiers of technology are pLshed outward, uncertainity about the usefulniess of innovations becomes an increasingly important factor in the decision whether or not to adopt the new innovation. Furthermore, the decisions of individual economic agents tend to become increasingly interrelated. Many recent innovations are such that whether others adopt the device influences the benefits of adoption which accrue to a given consumer or firm. Such externalities may be positive (for example, consider a nation's decision to use the metric system, the wearing of a style by a fashion leader, a merchant's decision to accept a certain credit card, or the purchase of a coinmunication device by someone with whom one desires to communicate) or negative (for instance, imitation in the production of a faddish consumption item for which the potential market is limited, or the puLrchase of a telephone by an obscene caller). Our goal is to analyze techn-ological diffLsioll with interdependencies when uncertainty and informational considerationis are an inherent part of the theoretical model. The uncertainty may be of two types: (a) technological uLncertainty the usefulness or quality of the innovation is at least partially unlknown, and (b) adoption uncertainity incomplete or inaccurate knowledge about who is usinlg the innovation. In our stochastic model, adoptioni is reversible the decision to use the innovation is not permanent, but rather, agents may change their minds. Agents are not able to learn about the characteristics (quality, profitability, usefulness, etc.) of the innovation. This assumption limits the applicability of

The Price-Quality Relationship—Revisited

Abstract: Using price data collected in Indianapolis and Lafayette, Indiana, rank order correlations between price and quality were computed. These were compared to correlations based on price data obtained from the publications of consumer product testing organizations. It was found that price-quality correlations based on the price data furnished by consumer product testing organizations may not reflect price-quality correlations for specific markets. A second finding of the study suggests the existence of variability across store types with respect to price-quality correlations.

Optimal control of reservoir discharge quality through selective withdrawal : hydraulic laboratory investigation

Abstract: A methodology combining simulation and optimization techniques is presented for determining optimal operational guidelines for selective withdrawal structures to meet downstream water temperature objectives. The goal is to develop operating rules that take into account anticipation of future critical temperature conditions that could occur. A one-dimensional reservoir thermal simulation model developed by the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station is used to simulate the thermal stratification cycle of a reservoir. The thermal stratification model is interfaced with a new method of formulating dynamic programing problems called objective-space dynamic programing to develop the optimal operation for each decision period. An advantage of the approach is that the thermal simulation model is retained in its original form rather than having to be restructured to fit explicitly into the optimizing model. An objective function related to release temperature deviations from desired target levels is minimized over a portion of the stratification cycle. Application to a case study shows the potential for improved system performance using the dynamic programing technique, as compared to the normal myopic period by period operation.

Writing Essays About Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet

Abstract: Reading Literature: Approaches to Reading Literature. Analyzing Literature. Analyzing Fiction. Analyzing Drama. Analyzing Poetry. Evaluating the Quality of Literature. Specialized Approaches to Interpreting Literature. Writing About Literature: Writing About Literature. Choosing Topics. Drafting the Essay. Documenting Sources. Revising and Editing. Taking Essay Tests. Sample Student Essays.

The Association Between Municipal Accounting Information and Bond Rating Changes

Abstract: Considerable controversy exists regarding the usefulness of municipal accounting information. Efforts to modify the present reporting framework for municipalities are predicated upon assertions that the information is not timely, reliable, and/or otherwise useful. In this study, we examined the association between municipal bond rating changes and accounting information to assess (1) whether municipal accounting measures available prior to a bond rating change are useful for predicting the change, and (2) whether municipal accounting measures available subsequent to the rating change reflect the economic conditions which induced the change in ratings. Results are eunbiguous for objective (1) but supportive of objective (2). These results provide additional insights into the use of accounting information by bond rating agencies and into the correspondence between rating agency assessments of municipal quality attributes and Jissessments obtained from accounting numbers. Such considerations are important to creditors who wish to predict rating changes, since few alternative sources of information for assessing municipal bond risk are available, and to commercial bank investment portfolio managers, who face regulatory constraints on the quality of issues within their portfolios.'