Can Experience be Trusted? Investigating the Effect of Experience on Decision Biases in Crowdworking Platforms

Companies increasingly involve the crowd for collective decision making and, to aggregate the decisions, they commonly average the scores. By ignoring crowdworkers’ different levels of experience and decision biases, this method may not favor the best outcome. Alternatively, decisions can be weighted in favor of the more experienced judges in the crowd. However, previous research is inconclusive as to whether more experienced individuals are any better at avoiding decision biases. To answer this question, we conduct online crowd-based experiments with a range of treatments, comparing the anchoring effect of individuals with different levels of experience. Results indicate that not only does greater experience not protect crowdworkers from the anchoring effect but it increases their confidence in their decision, compared to less experienced individuals, even if they are wrong. Our findings provide valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners interested in improving the effectiveness of crowdworking decision-making

Japanese Horizontal Keiretsu and the Performance Implications of Membership

Our study investigates the effect of Japanese horizontal keiretsu group membership on firm risk and return. Like prior studies, our results show that horizontal keiretsu membership has a negative effect on firm profitability. However, we find that horizontal keiretsu networks are likely to increase the gap between targeted and realized returns, which we call the outcome-aspiration gap. Moreover, in contrast to prior studies, our results indicate that keiretsu membership does not enable member firms to reduce risks by smoothing profitability. Instead, our findings provide evidence that is counter to the conventional notion that Japanese horizontal keiretsu allow their member firms to trade off profits for reduced risk.Horizontal keiretsu, Performance, Risk sharing

Re-Evaluating the Offshoring Decision: A Behavioural Approach to the Role of Performance Discrepancy

Firms are in a continuous process of critically re-evaluating their offshoring strategies due to performance discrepancies. While prior research has focused on the implementation of organizational responses to performance shortfalls, we examine the offline search process, a key antecedent of organizational change, during which firms simultaneously explore alternative solutions when facing either a positive or a negative discrepancy between performance and aspirations. We adopt the Behavioural Theory of the Firm (BTOF) to investigate how the search process is affected by the size and nature (as being positive or negative) of the discrepancy as well as how it is moderated by cognitive biases. By examining 441 offshoring initiatives, we study firms' search processes in a novel context that refers either to ‘local’ solutions that are close to the current activity (i.e., expansion in the same host country) or ‘distant’ solutions that are far from the current one (i.e., relocation to a third country or to the home country). Our results provide new insights into organizational search, namely that performance shortfalls lead to distant search unless this choice is moderated by a location-specific anchor bias relating to the strategic importance of host location, while positive discrepancies trigger local search with decision-makers more inclined to consider expansion in the current host country

Improving yield in alfalfa seed stands with balanced fertilization

Non-Peer Reviewe

Зрительское кресло для учреждений культуры

Выпускная квалификационная работа посвящена проектированию зрительского кресла для учреждений культуры. Несмотря на то, что в дизайне делается уклон на особенности кинокресел, разработанный проект универсален и для других учреждений культуры, таких как театры, концертные залы, библиотеки и др. Особенностью и уникальной чертой кресла является встроенная барьерная защита, выполняющая профилактическую функцию по защите человека от распространения респираторных инфекций, передающихся воздушно-капельным путём. Объект исследования. Мебель для общественного пользования. Предмет исследования. Разработка зрительского кинокресла, универсально подходящего и для иных учреждений культуры благодаря некоторым трансформируемым элементам.The graduation project is aimed to design a cinema seating suitable for several other entertaining institutions. The unique feature of the seating is a build-in barrier screen, designed to keep people safe from airborne infections. The result of the work is a design solution for a cinema chair that meets the modern requirements of comfort, convenience and safety. The project offers options for solving some uncomfortable aspect of cinema settings, such as ineffective navigation in the audience hall, lack of storage for personal belongings, low level of ergonomics, etc. The graduation project includes an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion, a list of used sources and additions to the chapters

El sorprendente legado que nos dejó el sabio Moisés Bertoni: el Ka’a He’ê

El esfuerzo del científico Moisés Santiago Bertoni por sistematizar parte de la riqueza quetiene el Paraguay, se refleja en la Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, (Ka’a He’ê), una planta quehace parte de la identidad como nación, pero que al mismo tiempo, luego de un siglo,sigue siendo promisoria como elemento fundamental para la implementación de unmodelo de desarrollo sostenible en áreas rurales

What and how do SMEs gain by going international? A longitudinal investigation of financial and intellectual resource growth

This study examines the accumulation of financial and intellectual resources of U.S.-based biopharmaceutical SMEs. We find that internationalized SMEs experience better financial resource growth than domestic market-focused SMEs only in the long run. While international expansion per se does not enable SMEs to accumulate more intellectual resources than via domestic expansion, it exerts a positive impact over time for SMEs with strong alliance capabilities. Moreover, we show that alliance capabilities are more important than in-house technological capabilities for key resource accumulation of internationalized SMEs over time. Our results infer that SMEs gain the benefits of resource exploration via international expansion

Enhancing Social Diversity and Communication in an Assisted Living Facility for Older Adults: A Community Health Nursing Project

Improving the health of specific populations requires community partnerships, collaboration, and an in-depth understanding of the diverse health status and health care needs of the population.  The purpose of this paper is to describe a community health project that the authors, in conjunction with the staff and residents, implemented at an assisted living facility for older adults who needed assistance with activities of daily living but who were otherwise fairly independent. The LODGE (pseudonym) community is located in a large urban centre in Western Canada.  The focus of this three and half month project was to gain information about this community in order to help optimize the function and independence of its members. The guiding frameworks included the nursing process, the Community as a Partner model and the Population Health model. The community assessment included a windshield survey, a general survey of 142 residents living in the facility (74% response rate), key informant interviews, literature review, and several brainstorming sessions with staff and residents.  The focus of data analysis was on the salient areas of strength and areas that needed improvement. The major finding regarding how to best optimize the function and independence of the residents included interventions related to (a) obtaining a more specific in-depth interview with residents who are inactive in both a physical and social sense in order to obtain more specific information about the activities and interests they valued in the past, and which ones they could still participate in if specific types of resources were provided , (b) enhancing relational communication and (c) increasing accessibility to information regarding the eligibility and benefits of the government funded Home Care services.  Interventions were viewed positively by members of the community. Recommendations are provided for expansion and sustainability of future community interventions. &nbsp

A Combined Approach of Process Mining and Rule-based AI for Study Planning and Monitoring in Higher Education

This paper presents an approach of using methods of process mining and rule-based artificial intelligence to analyze and understand study paths of students based on campus management system data and study program models. Process mining techniques are used to characterize successful study paths, as well as to detect and visualize deviations from expected plans. These insights are combined with recommendations and requirements of the corresponding study programs extracted from examination regulations. Here, event calculus and answer set programming are used to provide models of the study programs which support planning and conformance checking while providing feedback on possible study plan violations. In its combination, process mining and rule-based artificial intelligence are used to support study planning and monitoring by deriving rules and recommendations for guiding students to more suitable study paths with higher success rates. Two applications will be implemented, one for students and one for study program designers.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, conference, 30 reference