Extended Fuzzy Sets and Their Applications

This contribution deals with introducing the innovative concept of extended fuzzy set (E-FS), in which the S-norm function of membership and non-membership grades is less than or equal to one. The proposed concept not only encompasses the concept of the fuzzy set (FS), but it also includes the concepts of the intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS), the Pythagorean fuzzy set (PFS) and the p-rung orthopair fuzzy set (p-ROFS). In order to explore the features of the E-FS concept, set and algebraic operations on E-FSs, average and geometric operations of E-FSs are studied and an E-FS score function is defined. The superiority of the E-FS concept is further confirmed with a score-based decision making technique in which the concepts of FS, IFS, PFS and p-ROFS do not make sense

An Empirical Investigation of Multinationality and Stock Price Crash Risk for MNCs in China

There is a large volume of literature in international business on multinationality. There is an equally large volume of literature in finance on stock price crash risk. However, very few studies have attempted to provide a link between these two research areas. Using an unbalanced panel data consisting of 473 multinational corporations (MNCs) publicly listed in the Chinese stock markets during 2004 to 2020, this paper is one of the first to empirically investigate whether and to what extent multinationality affects stock price crash risk. The paper finds strong evidence that multinational operation is negatively related to stock price crash risk. In addition, MNCs with better corporate governance quality experience larger decline in stock price crash risk when the degree of multinationality increases. Furthermore, MNCs with higher stock market liquidity experience lower crash risk. An important implication is that companies should strengthen their corporate governance and market liquidity while “going global”.Universiti Teknologi Brune

Regression Analysis of Macroeconomic Conditions and Capital Structures of Publicly Listed British Firms

Using an unbalanced panel of 922 non-financial companies publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange during January 1995 and September 2014, this article tests the predictions of Pecking Order Theory (POT), Trade-off Theory (TOT) and Market Timing Theory (MTT) of capital structure through the lens of macroeconomic conditions. We find strong evidence that leverage is negatively associated with the business cycle but positively related to stock market performance, which is consistent with POT. In addition, leverage is negatively related to financial market risk, as predicted by TOT. Furthermore, leverage is positively related to credit supply, which is in line with both the POT and TOT. Finally, there is no evidence in support of MTT. The above results are robust with respect to the measurement of macroeconomic variables, the choice of estimation methods and the inclusion of a dummy variable to account for the effect of the 2008 financial crisis. An important implication is that, because firms tend to be highly levered during business cycle downturns, expansionary fiscal and monetary policies to encourage more business borrowings may not be effective after all

Using Data Mining in Educational Administration: A Case Study on Improving School Attendance

The authors would like to thank the leadership and staff of Willen Primary School for permitting us to use their data and for their efforts in supporting this study, in particular, Ms Emma Warner (attendance officer), Ms Carrie Matthews (headteacher), and Ms Sarah Orr (deputy headteacher).Pupil absenteeism remains a significant problem for schools across the globe with negative impacts on overall pupil performance being well-documented. Whilst all schools continue to emphasize good attendance, some schools still find it difficult to reach the required average attendance, which in the UK is 96%. A novel approach is proposed to help schools improve attendance that leverages the market target model, which is built on association rule mining and probability theory, to target sessions that are most impactful to overall poor attendance. Tests conducted at Willen Primary School, in Milton Keynes, UK, showed that significant improvements can be made to overall attendance, attendance in the target session, and persistent (chronic) absenteeism, through the use of this approach. The paper concludes by discussing school leadership, research implications, and highlights future work which includes the development of a software program that can be rolled-out to other schools

Short-Sale Constraints and Stock Prices: Evidence from Implementation of Securities Refinancing Mechanism in Chinese Stock Markets

Qualified Securities for Short-sale Refinancing (QSSR) is a unique trading mechanism that has exogenously increased the supply of loanable securities in Chinese stock markets. Using difference-in-differences (DID) methodology, this paper is the first to investigate whether and to what extent additions to the QSSR eligibility list affect short selling activities and stock price behaviors. The paper finds that stocks added to the QSSR list exhibit better liquidity and less negative skewness in returns than non-QSSR stocks. However, QSSR stocks are more volatile and display a higher frequency of extreme negative returns. In addition, on average, QSSR stocks experience larger negative abnormal returns (ARs) and cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) relative to non-QSSR stocks, and the difference in CARs is positively related to investor heterogeneity. The results indicate that short selling has mixed effects on stock prices. Removing short-sale constraints can improve liquidity and reduce price bubbles, but can also increase return volatility and amplify market crashes.Universiti Teknologi Brune

Integración de modelos de representación de preferencias en problemas de toma de decisiones con múltiples expertos

Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación e Inteligencia Artificia

Visual consensus feedback mechanism for group decision making with complementary linguistic preference relations

A visual consensus feedback mechanism for group decision making (GDM) problems with complementary linguistic preference rela- tions is presented. Linguistic preferences are modelled using triangular fuzzy membership functions, and the concepts of similarity degree (SD) between two experts as well as the proximity degree (PD) between an expert and the rest of experts in the group are de ned and used to measure the consensus level (CL). A feedback mechanism is proposed to identify experts, alternatives and corresponding preference values that contribute less to consensus. The novelty of this feedback mechanism is that it provides experts with visual representations of their consen- sus status to easily `see' their consensus position within the group as well as to identify the alternatives and preference values that should be reconsidered for changing in the subsequent consensus round. The feed- back mechanism also includes individualised recommendations to those identi ed experts on changing their identi ed preference values and vi- sual graphical simulation of future consensus status if the recommended values were to be implemented.European Commission TIN2010-17876Andalusian Excellence TIC-05299 TIC-5991University of Granada ExcellenceNational Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 71101131 713311002 LR13G01000

Quality Properties of Execution Tracing, an Empirical Study

The authors are grateful to all the professionals who participated in the focus groups; moreover, they also express special thanks to the management of the companies involved for making the organisation of the focus groups possible.Data are made available in the appendix including the results of the data coding process.The quality of execution tracing impacts the time to a great extent to locate errors in software components; moreover, execution tracing is the most suitable tool, in the majority of the cases, for doing postmortem analysis of failures in the field. Nevertheless, software product quality models do not adequately consider execution tracing quality at present neither do they define the quality properties of this important entity in an acceptable manner. Defining these quality properties would be the first step towards creating a quality model for execution tracing. The current research fills this gap by identifying and defining the variables, i.e., the quality properties, on the basis of which the quality of execution tracing can be judged. The present study analyses the experiences of software professionals in focus groups at multinational companies, and also scrutinises the literature to elicit the mentioned quality properties. Moreover, the present study also contributes to knowledge with the combination of methods while computing the saturation point for determining the number of the necessary focus groups. Furthermore, to pay special attention to validity, in addition to the the indicators of qualitative research: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability, the authors also considered content, construct, internal and external validity

A Trust Risk Dynamic Management Mechanism Based on Third-Party Monitoring for the Conflict-Eliminating Process of Social Network Group Decision Making

This work was supported in part by the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province under Grant KYCX20_0507; in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant B200203165 and Grant B220203013; in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant 71871085; in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province under Grant BK20210634; in part by the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST under Grant 1521182101004; and in part by the China Scholarship Council under Grant 202106710123.Every decision may involve risks. Real-world risk issues are usually supervised by third parties. Decision-making may be affected by the absence of sufficient or reasonable trust or to the opposite, an unconditional, excessive, or blind trust, which is called trust risks. The conflict-eliminating process (CEP) aims to facilitate satisfactory consensus by decision makers (DMs) through continuous reconciliation between their opinion differences on the subject matter. This article addresses trust risks in CEP of social network group decision making (SNGDM) through third-party monitoring. A trust risk analysis-based conflict-eliminating model for SNGDM is developed. It is assumed that a third-party agency monitors the DMs’ credibility and performance, which is recorded in an objective evaluation matrix and multi-attribute trust assessment matrix (MTAM). A trust risk measurement methodology is proposed to classify the DMs’ different trust risk types and to measure the trust risk index (TRI) of a group of DMs. When TRI is unacceptable, a trust risk management mechanism that controls TRI is activated. Different management policies are applicable to DMs’ different trust risk types. There are two main methods: 1) dynamically update the MTAM based on DMs’ performance and 2) provide suggestions for modifying the DM’s information with high TRI. Besides, as part of the integrated CEP, this model includes an optimization approach to dynamically derive DMs’ reliable aggregation weights from their MTAM. Simulation experiments and an illustrative example support the feasibility and validity of the proposed model for managing trust risks in CEP of SNGDM.Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province KYCX20_0507Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities B200203165 B220203013National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 71871085Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province BK20210634Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST 1521182101004China Scholarship Council 20210671012

Multiobjective Optimization-Based Collective Opinion Generation With Fairness Concern

The generation of collective opinion based on probability distribution function (PDF) aggregation is gradually becoming a critical approach for tackling immense and delicate assessment and evaluation tasks in decision analysis. However, the existing collective opinion generation approaches fail to model the behavioral characteristics associated with individuals, and thus, cannot reflect the fairness concerns among them when they consciously or unconsciously incorporate their judgments on the fairness level of distribution into the formulations of individual opinions. In this study, we propose a multiobjective optimization-driven collective opinion generation approach that generalizes the bi-objective optimization-based PDF aggregation paradigm. In doing so, we adapt the notion of fairness concern utility function to characterize the influence of fairness inclusion and take its maximization as an additional objective, together with the criteria of consensus and confidence levels, to achieve in generating collective opinion. The formulation of fairness concern is then transformed into the congregation of individual fairness concern utilities in the use of aggregation functions. We regard the generalized extended Bonferroni mean (BM) as an elaborated framework for aggregating individual fairness concern utilities. In such way, we establish the concept of BMtype collective fairness concern utility to empower multiobjective optimization-driven collective opinion generation approach with the capacity of modeling different structures associated with the expert group with fairness concern. The application of the proposed fairness-aware framework in the maturity assessment of building information modeling demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of multiobjective optimization-driven approach for generating collective opinion when accomplishing complicated assessment and evaluation tasks with data scarcity