Exploring the effects of position-related information on the perception of scenario-based passing opportunities: An information integration theoretical approach

When football players are preparing to pass the ball, they consider contextual information provided by the current game situation to identify passing opportunities and choose the one that appears most beneficial. In the search for contextual information indicating such opportunities, a recent study analyzing the relationships between the position-related characteristics of game situations and athletes’ passing behavior reports that athletes generally prioritize passing options based on their team members’ areal proximity, the openness of the passing lanes leading to team members, and how closely the team members are covered by the opponents. While the found relationships indicate the positional features’ relevance to the athletes’ passing behavior, the importance of single bits of positional information and their integration into subjectively perceived passing opportunities remain unknown. The aim of this study is to begin closing this gap and analyze how multiple athletes weigh and integrate position-related information within their subjective process of perceiving passing opportunities. The study uses a 3x3x3 within-subject design. Twenty-one football players provided information about the perceived quality of passing opportunities within standardized game scenarios. The data were analyzed using an information integration theoretical approach combined with mixed linear modeling. The results reveal substantial interpersonal differences regarding the importance players attribute to specific positional information and how they integrate the positional information. Two recurring patterns of information integration were found. In most of the cases, the results indicate additive information integration. However, in some cases, the results indicate that players deviate from additive information integration when a single piece of positional information seemingly dominates the athletes’ perceptions. In the future, IIT approaches can be adopted to research designs using virtual reality, including other sets and ranges of contextual information, as well as other sports and sports situations in which the integration of information into subjective perceptions is of interest

Market exit and possible re-entry

Es gibt viele Theorien und Studien über Exitstrategien und Wiedereinstiegsszenarien für den Binnenmarkt, die diesbezügliche Forschung für internationale Märkte steckt jedoch noch in den Kinderschuhen. Das vorliegende Werk versteht sich als Beitrag zum bisher minder beforschten Thema des internationalen Marktausstiegs und Wiedereintritts in Schwellenländern. Wie die Fallstudie belegt, stellt die Politik einen der wichtigsten Ausstiegsgründe dar. Andere wichtige Indikatoren sind die wirtschaftliche Lage, die Marktgröße und –attraktivität, der Entwicklungsstand des Wirtschaftssektors sowie interkulturelle Unterschiede. Eine Frage bleibt: Brauchen Unternehmen eine Exitstrategie? Das vorliegende Werk gibt einen Überblick über die Schwellenländer des Westbalkans sowie AL-MA-KO-MO (Albanien, Mazedonien, Kosovo und Montenegro) und Albanien im Besonderen. Eine Situationsanalyse über den Bereich Abfallwirtschaft in Albanien (Heimatland) und Österreich (Gastland) versucht die Spezifika dieses Sektors und die Herausforderungen im Internationalisierungsprozess von Abfallwirtschaftsangeboten hervorzuheben.There are many theories and studies about domestic market exit and re-entry but theories about international market exit and re-entry are at embryonic stage. This paper contributes to the under-researched issue of international market exit and re-entry in transition markets. As the case study illustrates the role of politics in transition markets is one of the key exit reasons among other major indicators such as economic situation, market size and attractiveness, development of the sector and cultural distance. The still open question remains: Should companies have an exit strategy? This paper gives an overview of the transition countries of Western Balkans, AL-MA-KO-MO Region (ALbania MAcedonia KOsovo and Montenegro) and Albania in specific. A situation analysis of the waste management sector in the Albania (home country) and Austria (host country) aims to highlight the specifics of this sector and the challenges in the internationalisation of waste management services

Numerical simulation framework for weakly coupled multiphysical problems in electrical engineering

Every engineering discipline faces the fact of ever-shortening time-to-market windows and development cycles. In order to counteract these, virtual prototyping, simulation and problem optimization are employed in a rapidly increasing number of cases. Yet, the key to efficient problem formulation by professionals still lies in the use of sophisticated simulation software capable of processing numerous diverse design and optimization tasks in a versatile way. More often than not, different tools for different workflows need to be coordinated and interdepend on each others data in the design process chain. When toolchains need to be run multiple times, as it is typically the case in numerical optimization, the lineup overhead tends to be tedious to both man and machine. This paper describes different aspects concerning the design of a software and data framework which tackles the problem of lining up software tools that may be incoherent in terms of data exchange and control mode. The resulting system covers all parts of multiphysical simulation problems that may arise in electrical engineering and its adjoining disciplines as an application of the finite element method