Normalization in econometrics

The issue of normalization arises whenever two different values for a vector of unknown parameters imply the identical economic model. A normalization does not just imply a rule for selecting which point, among equivalent ones, to call the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). It also governs the topography of the set of points that go into a small-sample confidence interval associated with that MLE. A poor normalization can lead to multimodal distributions, disjoint confidence intervals, and very misleading characterizations of the true statistical uncertainty. This paper introduces the identification principle as a framework upon which a normalization should be imposed, according to which the boundaries of the allowable parameter space should correspond to loci along which the model is locally unidentified. The authors illustrate these issues with examples taken from mixture models, structural VARs, and cointegration.

Promoting energy partnership in Beijing and Washington

Although China and the United States do not rely on one another for energy supplies, the prospects for energy to become a cause for more serious clashes are high. Both countries should move beyond dialogue toward a true partnership that can confront the common challenges they face as importers. © 2007 by The Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.published_or_final_versio

Making sense of sensory brand experience: constructing an integrative framework for future research

This study asserts that conceptualising sensory brand experience (SBE) as an independent construct is critical to expanding our understanding of experiences provided by brands. To achieve this goal, a rigorous examination of its foundational knowledge structure underpinning the construct is urgently required. Using co-citation analysis examining 151 SBE-related articles with 4,038 citations over more than two decades (1994–2019), six knowledge fields deemed to have constitutive influence on SBE literature have been identified - atmospherics, product evaluation, sensory marketing, service marketing, experiential marketing and brand experience. Combining the results of a hierarchical cluster analysis and a metric multidimensional scaling analysis, the authors located three fundamental premises: (1) brand settings are arbiters of brand meaning; (2) the intrinsic processing of SBE involves the entrainment of exteroceptive and interoceptive processes; and (3) SBE outcomes are non-representational. At the end of the paper, these findings are organised into an integrative framework, highlighting research concerns and research gaps at the antecedent, processing and outcome stages. In doing so, this paper contributes to the conceptual development of SBE by constructing a doctrinal schema for future research undertakings

Experiencing the sense of the brand: the mining, processing and application of brand data through sensory brand experiences

Purpose - This article aims to develop an integrative framework based on a convergence of embodiment, ecological and phenomenological theoretical perspectives, to explain the multiple processes involved in the consumers’ mining, processing and application of brand-related sensory data through a sensory brand experience. Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts a qualitative method by using face-to-face in-depth interviews (retail managers and customers) and focus group interviews (actual customers) with 34 respondents to investigate sensory brand experiences in the context of Chinese shopping malls. Findings - Results show that the brand data mined through multisensory cues (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile and taste) in a brand setting are processed internally as sensory brand experiences (involving sensory impressions such as fun, interesting, extraordinary, comforting, caring, innovative, pleasant, appealing, convenient), which influence key variables in customer-brand relationships including customer satisfaction, brand attachment, and customer lovemarks. Originality/value – This study has implications for current theory on experiential marketing, branding, consumer-brand relationships, consumer psychology and customer experience management

An assessment of brand experience knowledge literature: using bibliometric data to identify future research direction

There is wide consensus that the brand experience literature (BEL) suffers from a deficit in conceptual works. This study argues that, for brand experience research to overcome its conceptual insipidity, it must reexamine the core of its intellectual structure to rediscover what ‘an experience provided by brands’ truly implies. The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize and present a future research framework for research into the concept of brand experience, by identifying both the core and peripheral sources of knowledge of the concept and its association with brand meaning. Through a bibliometric process covering 136 articles published between 2002 and 2018, resulting in a database of 2,698 citations, this brand experience conceptual paper fills a critical research gap by providing the first full-scale bibliometric study to date of the BEL, using a combination of high citation and co-citation metrics. Based on this conceptual reorientation, a matrix for future development is presented, enabling the reader to visualize the scope and breadth of potential brand experience research horizons in areas relating to customer experience, consumer-brand relationship, online brand experience and sensory brand experience. The four approaches listed in the matrix – firm-based, social constructionist, virtuality and embodiment – provide a roadmap for future brand experience research undertakings to explore the rich potential of experience evoked by brands

A genuine maximally seven-qubit entangled state

Contrary to A.Borras et al.'s [1] conjecture, a genuine maximally seven-qubit entangled state is presented. We find a seven-qubit state whose marginal density matrices for subsystems of 1,2- qubits are all completely mixed and for subsystems of 3-qubits is almost completely mixed

Zero Field precession and hysteretic threshold currents in spin torque oscillators with tilted polarizer

Using non-linear system theory and numerical simulations we map out the static and dynamic phase diagram in zero applied field of a spin torque oscillator with a tilted polarizer (TP-STO).We find that for sufficiently large currents, even very small tilt angles (beta>1 degree) will lead to steady free layer precession in zero field. Within a rather large range of tilt angles, 1 degree< beta <19 degree, we find coexisting static states and hysteretic switching between these using only current. In a more narrow window (1 degree<beta<5 degree) one of the static states turns into a limit cycle (precession). The coexistence of static and dynamic states in zero magnetic field is unique to the tilted polarizer and leads to large hysteresis in the upper and lower threshold currents for TP-STO operation.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Study of quasi-1D SnO2 nanowires

The descriptions of SnO2 nanowires growth procedures are getting more and more frequent in the current literature. However, studies on the growth mechanisms are still lacking. In particular, no investigation has been reported on the growth process when the growth mechanisms are not based, as in the case of whiskers, on vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) transitions. In this paper, a new procedure is reported by the authors for growing SnO2 nanowires, based on the presence of liquid-tin droplets on the substrate. The Sn vapour pressure developed by these droplets, which find themselves very close to the growing tip of the wire, gives rise to a sufficiently high supersaturation to enable the fast growth rate usually observed. The principal features and results of this new procedure, as well as possible growth mechanisms, are also discussed