Market oriented cognitive subcultures in a multiple stakeholder environment

The importance of an organisation wide market oriented culture revolves around the performance implications of a focus on customers. However, in contemporary multiple stakeholder environments different notions of ‘the customer’ can exist adding complexity and introducing the possibility of different market oriented subcultures. An analysis of managers’ cognitive maps within a single case study highlight different beliefs and values associated with two alternative market oriented subcultures externally driven by a focus on two different customer groups. The lack of management consensus was further emphasised by two other alternative internally driven subcultures within the same firm. The implications are briefly discussed

Scaling analysis of deformation field within granular materials: application to strain localization

Discrete element method (DEM) simulations using periodic boundary conditions and molecular dynamics are conducted on a frictional granular media. Two dimensional strain controlled biaxial tests are carried out on an assembly of circular particles interacting via elastic contacts and Coulomb friction. The spatial correlations that take place within the deformation field along the loading path are tracked by a scaling analysis of the continuous strain rate field. This method allows us to discuss the degree of strain localization occurring throughout the test. The analysis of the correlation length in the early stages of macroscopic deformation leads to the identification of two distinct behaviors. First, a divergence of the correlation length on the first deformation invariant, i.e. the divergence, is reported at the onset of macroscopic dilation. This suggests an interpretation of the contraction peak as a critical point. Secondly, an increase of the correlation length on the second deformation invariant, i.e. the shear, is also observed before the peak load. However, saturation remains on the scaling law. We argue that this second behavior is associated to macroscopic shear banding: our analysis accurately gives its outbreak on the stress versus strain curve. Finally, a dependence of the correlation length as a function of the deformation window considered is reported. This shows that scaling properties within the deformation field emerge from long range interactions within an assembly of rigid frictional particles

Combining relations and text in scientific network clustering

International audienceIn this paper, we present different combined cluster- ing methods and we evaluate their performances and their results on a dataset with ground truth. This dataset, built from several sources, contains a scientific social network in which textual data is associated to each vertex and the classes are known. Indeed, while the clustering task is widely studied both in graph clustering and in non supervised learning, combined clustering which exploits simultaneously the relationships between the vertices and attributes describing them, is quite new. We argue that, depending on the kind of data we have and the type of results we want, the choice of the clustering method is important and we present some concrete examples for underlining this

Getting Clusters from Structure Data and Attribute Data

International audienceIf the clustering task is widely studied both in graph clustering and in non supervised learning, combined clustering which exploits simultaneously the relationships between the ver- tices and attributes describing them, is quite new. In this paper, we present different scenarios for this task and, we evaluate their performances and their results on a dataset, with ground truth, built from several sources and containing a scientific social network in which textual data is associated to each vertex and the classes are known. We argue that, depending on the kind of data we have and the type of results we want, the choice of the clustering method is important and we present some concrete examples for underlining this

Cognitive shifts within leader and follower teams:Where consensus develops in mental models during an organizational crisis

This empirical study investigates cognitive shifts in both leader and follower teams when developing consensus or agreement in how to resolve a slowly emerging organizational crisis over time. The cognitive maps of leaders and followers are analyzed in team settings to explain where consensus is formed. The findings indicate that consensus, or the agreement on the causal beliefs held to be critical to organizational adaptation and success, builds over time within both leader and follower teams. However, when comparing the development of consensus longitudinally, the findings confirm that the mental models of leadership teams converge towards follower teams, and not the other way around, during the crisis. The study provides new insights into the importance of the causal beliefs of follower teams when developing a vision to coordinate action to resolve a crisis

Détection de communautés dans les réseaux d'information utilisant liens et attributs

Alors que les réseaux sociaux s'attachent à représenter des entités et les relations existant entre elles, les réseaux d'information intègrent également des attributs décrivant ces entités ; ce qui conduit à revisiter les méthodes d'analyse et de fouille de ces réseaux. Dans ces travaux, nous proposons des méthodes de classification des entités du réseau d'information qui exploitent d'une part les relations entre celles-ci et d'autre part les attributs les caractérisant. Nous nous penchons sur le cas des réseaux à vecteurs d'attributs, où les entités du réseau sont décrites par des vecteurs numériques. Ainsi nous proposons des approches basées sur des techniques reconnues pour chaque type d'information, faisant appel notamment à l'inertie pour la classification automatique et à la modularité de Newman et Girvan pour la détection de communautés. Nous évaluons nos propositions sur des réseaux issus de données bibliographiques, faisant usage en particulier d'information textuelle. Nous évaluons également nos approches face à diverses évolutions du réseau, notamment au regard d'une détérioration des informations des liens et des attributs, et nous caractérisons la robustesse de nos méthodes à celle-ciWhile social networks use to represent entities and relationships between them, information networks also include attributes describing these entities, leading to review the analysis and mining methods for these networks. In this work, we discuss classification of the entities in an information network. Classification operate simultaneously on the relationships and on the attributes characterizing the entities. We look at the case of attributed graphs where entities are described by numerical feature vectors. We propose approaches based on proven classification techniques for each type of information, including the inertia for machine learning and Newman and Girvan's modularity for community detection. We evaluate our proposals on networks from bibliographic data, using textual information. We also evaluate our methods against various changes in the network, such as a deterioration of the relational or vector data, mesuring the robustness of our methods to themST ETIENNE-Bib. électronique (422189901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Assessing the number of users who are excluded by domestic heating controls

This is the pre-print version of the Article. This Article is also referred to as: "Assessing the 'Design Exclusion' of Heating Controls at a Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Housing Development". - Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & FrancisSpace heating accounts for almost 60% of the energy delivered to housing which in turn accounts for nearly 27% of the total UK's carbon emissions. This study was conducted to investigate the influence of heating control design on the degree of ‘user exclusion’. This was calculated using the Design Exclusion Calculator, developed by the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Cambridge. To elucidate the capability requirements of the system, a detailed hierarchical task analysis was produced, due to the complexity of the overall task. The Exclusion Calculation found that the current design placed excessive demands upon the capabilities of at least 9.5% of the UK population over 16 years old, particularly in terms of ‘vision’, ‘thinking’ and ‘dexterity’ requirements. This increased to 20.7% for users over 60 years old. The method does not account for the level of numeracy and literacy and so the true exclusion may be higher. Usability testing was conducted to help validate the results which indicated that 66% of users at a low-carbon housing development could not programme their controls as desired. Therefore, more detailed analysis of the cognitive demands placed upon the users is required to understand where problems within the programming process occur. Further research focusing on this cognitive interaction will work towards a solution that may allow users to behave easily in a more sustainable manner