Temporal Web Image Retrieval

International audienceTemporal Web Image Retrieval can be defined as the process that retrieves sets ofWeb images with their temporal dimension from explicit or implicit temporal text queries. Supposing that (a) the temporal dimension is included in image indexing and (b) the query is explicitly expressed with a time tag (e.g. "Fukushima 2011"), the retrieval task can be straightforward as image retrieval has been studied for several years with success. However, text queries are usually implicit in time (e.g. "Second World War") and automatically capturing the time dimension included in Web images is a challenge that has not been studied so far to the best of our knowledge. In this paper, we will discuss different research issues about Temporal Web Image Retrieval and the current progresses of our research in temporal ephemeral clustering and temporal image filtering

Fully Parallel Hyperparameter Search: Reshaped Space-Filling

Space-filling designs such as scrambled-Hammersley, Latin Hypercube Sampling and Jittered Sampling have been proposed for fully parallel hyperparameter search, and were shown to be more effective than random or grid search. In this paper, we show that these designs only improve over random search by a constant factor. In contrast, we introduce a new approach based on reshaping the search distribution, which leads to substantial gains over random search, both theoretically and empirically. We propose two flavors of reshaping. First, when the distribution of the optimum is some known $P_0$, we propose Recentering, which uses as search distribution a modified version of $P_0$ tightened closer to the center of the domain, in a dimension-dependent and budget-dependent manner. Second, we show that in a wide range of experiments with $P_0$ unknown, using a proposed Cauchy transformation, which simultaneously has a heavier tail (for unbounded hyperparameters) and is closer to the boundaries (for bounded hyperparameters), leads to improved performances. Besides artificial experiments and simple real world tests on clustering or Salmon mappings, we check our proposed methods on expensive artificial intelligence tasks such as attend/infer/repeat, video next frame segmentation forecasting and progressive generative adversarial networks

Success Factors of Small and Medium-Sized International Enterprises in the Chinese Market from the Perspective of Polish Direct Investment (Cultural Approach)

Globalization has resulted in increasing transfer of firms operations, regardless of their size, to other countries. The recent dynamic emergence of China in the global economy, connecting with the vast inflows of foreign direct investment in their territory and common adjustments problems of many Western companies, has resulted in growing interest for best suitable business practices to this culturally and socially different environment. In this article, the key factors critical to the success of international companies in this region are introduced, with particular consideration to indigenous cultural elements and specific operation requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises in Business-to-Business sectors. The presented information are based on the broad literature review, five years of direct observation and thirty eight interviews conducted with Polish managers directly residing in China. In addition, some practical recommendations for managers and further research are given.Globalizacja wymusza na firmach, niezależnie od ich wielkości, coraz częstsze przenoszenie operacji do innych krajów. Dynamiczne pojawienie się Chin w światowej gospodarce i szeroki napł;yw zagranicznych inwestycji bezpośrednich na ich teren oraz problemy adaptacyjne wielu zachodnich przedsiębiorstw, spowodował;y zainteresowanie najlepszymi praktykami biznesowymi dostosowanymi do tego odmiennego kulturowo i społ;ecznie otocznia. W artykule zaprezentowane został;y najważniejsze czynnik mające wpł;yw na osiągnięcie sukcesu przez firmy międzynarodowe na tym obszarze, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem aspektów kulturowych i specyfiki dział;ania mał;ych i średnich podmiotów na rynkach B2B. Prezentowane informacje są oparte na przeglądzie literatury, pięcioletnich obserwacjach bezpośrednich oraz trzydziestu ośmiu wywiadach przeprowadzonych z menadżerami polskich przedsiębiorstw odpowiedzialnymi za operacje w Chinach. Dodatkowo wskazano kilka praktycznych rekomendacji menadżerskich oraz możliwości dalszych badań

Cultural differences affecting decision-making style: a comparative study between four countries

The aim of this paper was to identify the impact of national culture on decision-making styles in selected countries: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Hungary. The estimation of Hofstede’s dimensions of national cultures and comparative analyses was carried out by using a narrow-sample strategy. The estimated positions on each dimension confirmed the Hofstede’s original research ranking. The result with significant value was the confirmation of the global trend of decreasing power distance and significant movement towards the individualism. Besides the standardization procedure of comparative cross-cultural analyses, variance analyses were used to identify cultural differences in decision-making styles related to complex decisions (Janis and Mann’s typology). The proposition is that complex decisions are, above and beyond all others, the consequence of social and cultural values installed in every individual. Statistically significant dependency was identified for hyper-vigilant and vigilant decision-making style and national culture’s dimensions. A beneficial goal was to identify the differences and the similarities in value orientation and those in the decision-making style which should not be mistreated as they may influence future business cooperation and political and economic integrations within the CEE context

In search of tools for the use of Country-Image (CI) in the brand

Existing country image (CI) literature tends to focus on consumer behaviour. In contrast, this paper approaches CI from the point of view of the firm. In doing so, it seeks to identify the means by which international companies associate a brand with a specific country of origin in order to build brand values. In particular, it looks at the use of CI cues in brand strategies. The paper is based on exploratory research comprising a case study of two contrasting companies from the cosmetics industry, Natura, a domestic company, and the French-owned L’Occitane, both of which draw on images of Brazil to build their brands. Specific elements of CI used in branding are identified, and the extent to which the use of these differs depending on the origin of the owning company is explored. The cases suggest that CI can be exploited in different contexts. Through analysis of the elements used by both companies to build strong brands associated with the Brazilian CI—Natura Cosméticos and L’Occitane au Brésil—six tools are identified that can be combined by firms to deliver brand values, derived from any country, through the use of CI

A brand preference and repurchase intention model: The role of consumer experience

Consumer brand preference is an essential step towards understanding consumer choice behaviour, and has therefore always received great attention from marketers. However, the study of brand preference has been limited to traditional marketing focusing on functional attributes to maximise utility. But now the shift to experiential marketing broadens the role of the brand from a bundle of attributes to experiences. Technological advancements have helped to increase the similarities between brand attributes and product commoditisation. Consequently, consumers cannot shape their preferences among brands using rational attributes only. They seek out brands that create experiences; that intrigue them in a sensorial, emotional and creative way. This study seeks to develop a model that provides an understanding of how brand knowledge and brand experience determine brand preference and to investigate its impact on brand repurchase intention. Accordingly, exploratory focus group discussions are employed followed by a survey of mobile phone users in Egypt. The findings provide insights into the relative importance of consumer perceptions on different brand knowledge factors in shaping brand preferences. It also demonstrates the significance of consumers’ experiential responses toward brands in developing their brand preferences that in turn influence brand repurchase intention. The model therefore offers managers a new perspective for building strong brands able to gain consumer preferences

The country of brand communication in the retail setting: An analysis of Italian products in China

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of country of brand (COB) communication within the retail environment of emerging markets. Drawing from the literature on store image, we developed a framework to analyse static and dynamic elements of COB communication. By adopting an inductive approach, we analysed COB use in a sample of 20 stores of Italian fashion brands in China using the mystery shopping technique. Given the increasing growth of e-retailing in China, the in-store observation is complemented by an analysis of the use of COB within the brand's local website and e-commerce page. In order to have a multi-layered representation of the phenomenon, in-depth interviews with managers of Italian firms in fashion industry are carried out. Findings confirm that retailing represents a primary communication channel for firms operating in China; however, the results of the participant observation show that COB is a cue information utilised only by a small percentage of the sample, mainly in a textual and iconic way. Managerial implications are discussed on the extent to which COB communication in store should be managed within an effective marketing strategy in line with the country and consumer characteristics in order to enhance the brand image in a growing market like China

Robust ordinal regression in preference learning and ranking

Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding (MCDA) offers a diversity of approaches designed for providing the decision maker (DM) with a recommendation concerning a set of alternatives (items, actions) evaluated from multiple points of view, called criteria. This paper aims at drawing attention of the Machine Learning (ML) community upon recent advances in a representative MCDA methodology, called Robust Ordinal Regression (ROR). ROR learns by examples in order to rank a set of alternatives, thus considering a similar problem as Preference Learning (ML-PL) does. However, ROR implements the interactive preference construction paradigm, which should be perceived as a mutual learning of the model and the DM. The paper clarifies the specific interpretation of the concept of preference learning adopted in ROR and MCDA, comparing it to the usual concept of preference learning considered within ML. This comparison concerns a structure of the considered problem, types of admitted preference information, a character of the employed preference models, ways of exploiting them, and techniques to arrive at a final ranking