scholarly journals Google Popular Times: towards a better understanding of tourist customer patronage behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Möhring ◽  
Barbara Keller ◽  
Rainer Schmidt ◽  
Scott Dacko
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Behavioral Data ◽  
Consumer Behaviors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Data ◽  
Tourist Behavior ◽  
Online Source ◽  
Patronage Behavior ◽  
High Degree

Purpose This paper aims to investigate actual tourist customer visiting behavior with behavioral data from Google Popular Times to evaluate the extent that such an online source is useful to better understand, analyze and predict tourist consumer behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Following six hypotheses on tourist behavior, a purpose-built software tool was developed, pre-tested, and then used to obtain a large-scale data sample of 20,000 time periods for 198 restaurants. Both bi-variate linear regression and correlation analyzes were used for hypothesis testing. Findings Support was established for the hypotheses, through an analysis of customer reviews, timing effects, the number of pictures uploaded and price segment information provided by tourists to a given restaurant. Also, a relationship to average duration time was found to be positive. The findings demonstrate that data provided through Google Popular Times matches theoretical and logical assumptions to a high degree. Thus, the data source is potentially powerful for providing valuable information to stakeholders (e.g. researchers, managers and tourists). Originality/value This paper is the first to both conceptually and empirically demonstrate the practicality and value of Google Popular Times to better understand, analyze and predict tourist consumer behaviors. Value is thereby provided by the potential for this approach to offer insights based behavioral data. Importantly, until now such an approach to gathering and analyzing this volume of actual customer data was previously considered far less practical in terms of time and expense.

scholarly journals Lost in migration: document quality for batch conversion to PDF/A

2018 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Erwin Suri ◽  
Mohamed El-Saad
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
Batch Processing ◽  
Digital Archives ◽  
Adobe Acrobat ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Text Document ◽  
File Formats ◽  
Long Term Preservation

PurposeChanges in file format specifications challenge long-term preservation of digital documents. Digital archives thus often focus on specific file formats that are well suited for long-term preservation, such as the PDF/A format. Since only few customers submit PDF/A files, digital archives may consider converting submitted files to the PDF/A format. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe authors evaluated three software tools for batch conversion of common file formats to PDF/A-1b: LuraTech PDF Compressor, Adobe Acrobat XI Pro and 3-HeightsTMDocument Converter by PDF Tools. The test set consisted of 80 files, with 10 files each of the eight file types JPEG, MS PowerPoint, PDF, PNG, MS Word, MS Excel, MSG and “web page.”FindingsBatch processing was sometimes hindered by stops that required manual interference. Depending on the software tool, three to four of these stops occurred during batch processing of the 80 test files. Furthermore, the conversion tools sometimes failed to produce output files even for supported file formats: three (Adobe Pro) up to seven (LuraTech and 3-HeightsTM) PDF/A-1b files were not produced. Since Adobe Pro does not convert e-mails, a total of 213 PDF/A-1b files were produced. The faithfulness of each conversion was investigated by comparing the visual appearance of the input document with that of the produced PDF/A-1b document on a computer screen. Meticulous visual inspection revealed that the conversion to PDF/A-1b impaired the information content in 24 of the converted 213 files (11 percent). These reproducibility errors included loss of links, loss of other document content (unreadable characters, missing text, document part missing), updated fields (reflecting time and folder of conversion), vector graphics issues and spelling errors.Originality/valueThese results indicate that large-scale batch conversions of heterogeneous files to PDF/A-1b cause complex issues that need to be addressed for each individual file. Even with considerable efforts, some information loss seems unavoidable if large numbers of files from heterogeneous sources are migrated to the PDF/A-1b format.

Big data breaches and customer compensation strategies

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kude ◽  
Hartmut Hoehle ◽  
Tracy Ann Sykes
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Data Analytics ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Big Data Analytics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Data ◽  
Data Breaches ◽  
Large Scale Data ◽  
Scale Data

Purpose Big Data Analytics provides a multitude of opportunities for organizations to improve service operations, but it also increases the threat of external parties gaining unauthorized access to sensitive customer data. With data breaches now a common occurrence, it is becoming increasingly plain that while modern organizations need to put into place measures to try to prevent breaches, they must also put into place processes to deal with a breach once it occurs. Prior research on information technology security and services failures suggests that customer compensation can potentially restore customer sentiment after such data breaches. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors draw on the literature on personality traits and social influence to better understand the antecedents of perceived compensation and the effectiveness of compensation strategies. The authors studied the propositions using data collected in the context of Target’s large-scale data breach that occurred in December 2013 and affected the personal data of more than 70 million customers. In total, the authors collected data from 212 breached customers. Findings The results show that customers’ personality traits and their social environment significantly influences their perceptions of compensation. The authors also found that perceived compensation positively influences service recovery and customer experience. Originality/value The results add to the emerging literature on Big Data Analytics and will help organizations to more effectively manage compensation strategies in large-scale data breaches.

Perceptions of fair treatment in financial services

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 1315-1332 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Devlin ◽  
Sanjit Kumar Roy ◽  
Harjit Sekhon
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Measurement Scale ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Distributive Fairness ◽  
Perceptions Of Fairness ◽  
Dimensional Measure ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
High Degree

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to derive, test and validate a comprehensive, inclusive measure of perceptions of fairness in consumers of financial services, as current attempts to measure fairness in a broad-based multi-dimensional manner are underdeveloped. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach where a large-scale sample of the perceptions of financial services consumers is taken in three periods. Subsequently, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis are used to analyse the data. Findings – Fairness comprises three distinct but related elements, namely, procedural, interactional and distributive fairness, and further sub-dimensions are also apparent. The measurement scale exhibits a high degree of validity and reliability and represents a robust measure of fairness perceptions. Research limitations/implications – Previous conceptual suppositions as to the multi-dimensional nature of fairness are strongly supported. A comprehensive scale is provided for fellow researchers to utilise in other settings. The main limitation is that the measures were tested in a single context, although this is offset by the large scale of the pilot exercise and multiple waves of data collection. Practical implications – Perceptions of fairness can be measured accurately and tracked, measures for sub-dimensions of fairness can be compared and differences among sectors and demographic segments can be explored. Perceptions of fairness can be related to factors such as trust and purchase intentions in addition to other attitudinal measures. Originality/value – The fairness measure developed, tested and validated here is the most comprehensive, multi-dimensional measure of fairness available that the authors know of. As such, it represents a valuable conceptual contribution to the assessment of perceptions of fairness.

scholarly journals Platon: identification and characterization of bacterial plasmid contigs in short-read draft assemblies exploiting protein sequence-based replicon distribution scores

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Schwengers ◽  
Patrick Barth ◽  
Linda Falgenhauer ◽  
Torsten Hain ◽  
Trinad Chakraborty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Throughput ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Software Tool ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Independent Manner ◽  
Short Read ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance Genes

Plasmids are extrachromosomal genetic elements that replicate independently of the chromosome and play a vital role in the environmental adaptation of bacteria. Due to potential mobilization or conjugation capabilities, plasmids are important genetic vehicles for antimicrobial resistance genes and virulence factors with huge and increasing clinical implications. They are therefore subject to large genomic studies within the scientific community worldwide. As a result of rapidly improving next-generation sequencing methods, the quantity of sequenced bacterial genomes is constantly increasing, in turn raising the need for specialized tools to (i) extract plasmid sequences from draft assemblies, (ii) derive their origin and distribution, and (iii) further investigate their genetic repertoire. Recently, several bioinformatic methods and tools have emerged to tackle this issue; however, a combination of high sensitivity and specificity in plasmid sequence identification is rarely achieved in a taxon-independent manner. In addition, many software tools are not appropriate for large high-throughput analyses or cannot be included in existing software pipelines due to their technical design or software implementation. In this study, we investigated differences in the replicon distributions of protein-coding genes on a large scale as a new approach to distinguish plasmid-borne from chromosome-borne contigs. We defined and computed statistical discrimination thresholds for a new metric: the replicon distribution score (RDS), which achieved an accuracy of 96.6 %. The final performance was further improved by the combination of the RDS metric with heuristics exploiting several plasmid-specific higher-level contig characterizations. We implemented this workflow in a new high-throughput taxon-independent bioinformatics software tool called Platon for the recruitment and characterization of plasmid-borne contigs from short-read draft assemblies. Compared to PlasFlow, Platon achieved a higher accuracy (97.5 %) and more balanced predictions (F1=82.6 %) tested on a broad range of bacterial taxa and better or equal performance against the targeted tools PlasmidFinder and PlaScope on sequenced Escherichia coli isolates. Platon is available at: http://platon.computational.bio/.

Financial distress determinants among SMEs: empirical evidence from Sweden

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darush Yazdanfar ◽  
Peter Öhman
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Financial Distress ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically investigate determinants of financial distress among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the global financial crisis and post-crisis periods.Design/methodology/approachSeveral statistical methods, including multiple binary logistic regression, were used to analyse a longitudinal cross-sectional panel data set of 3,865 Swedish SMEs operating in five industries over the 2008–2015 period.FindingsThe results suggest that financial distress is influenced by macroeconomic conditions (i.e. the global financial crisis) and, in particular, by various firm-specific characteristics (i.e. performance, financial leverage and financial distress in previous year). However, firm size and industry affiliation have no significant relationship with financial distress.Research limitationsDue to data availability, this study is limited to a sample of Swedish SMEs in five industries covering eight years. Further research could examine the generalizability of these findings by investigating other firms operating in other industries and other countries.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine determinants of financial distress among SMEs operating in Sweden using data from a large-scale longitudinal cross-sectional database.

The dialectics of authoring expansive learning: tracing the long tail of a Change Laboratory

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 245-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalisa Sannino ◽  
Yrjö Engeström ◽  
Johanna Lahikainen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Scale Transformation ◽  
Dialectical Tensions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organization Model ◽  
Expansive Learning ◽  
Conceptual Argument ◽  
University Library ◽  
Dialectical Process ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

Purpose The paper aims to examine organizational authoring understood as a longitudinal, material and dialectical process of transformation efforts. The following questions are asked: To which extent can a Change Laboratory intervention help practitioners author their own learning? Are the authored outcomes of a Change Laboratory intervention futile if a workplace subsequently undergoes large-scale organizational transformations? Does the expansive learning authored in a Change Laboratory intervention survive large-scale organizational transformations, and if so, why does it survive and how? Design/methodology/approach The paper develops a conceptual argument based on cultural–historical activity theory. The conceptual argument is grounded in the examination of a case of eight years of change efforts in a university library, including a Change Laboratory (CL) intervention. Follow-up interview data are used to discuss and illuminate our argument in relation to the three research questions. Findings The idea of knotworking constructed in the CL process became a “germ cell” that generates novel solutions in the library activity. A large-scale transformation from the local organization model developed in the CL process to the organization model of the entire university library was not experienced as a loss. The dialectical tension between the local and global models became a source of movement driven by the emerging expansive object. Practitioners are modeling their own collective future competences, expanding them both in socio-spatial scope and interactive depth. Originality/value The article offers an expanded view of authorship, calling attention to material changes and practical change actions. The dialectical tensions identified serve as heuristic guidelines for future studies and interventions.

scholarly journals Greater fit and a greater gap

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-594
Author(s):  
Steven A. Brieger ◽  
Dirk De Clercq ◽  
Jolanda Hessels ◽  
Christian Pfeifer
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Person Environment Fit ◽  
High Power Distance ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low Uncertainty

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how national institutional environments contribute to differences in life satisfaction between entrepreneurs and employees. Design/methodology/approach Leveraging person–environment fit and institutional theories and using a sample of more than 70,000 entrepreneurs and employees from 43 countries, the study investigates how the impact of entrepreneurial activity on life satisfaction differs in various environmental contexts. An entrepreneur’s life satisfaction arguably should increase when a high degree of compatibility or fit exists between his or her choice to be an entrepreneur and the informal and formal institutional environment. Findings The study finds that differences in life satisfaction between entrepreneurs and employees are larger in countries with high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, extant entrepreneurship policies, low commercial profit taxes and low worker rights. Originality/value This study sheds new light on how entrepreneurial activity affects life satisfaction, contingent on the informal and formal institutions in a country that support entrepreneurship by its residents.

Dynamic output feedback control for nonlinear large-scale interconnected systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-821
Author(s):  
Ezzeddine Touti ◽  
Ali Sghaier Tlili ◽  
Muhannad Almutiry
Keyword(s):  
Decentralized Control ◽  
Output Feedback ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Optimization Problem ◽  
Lyapunov Theory ◽  
Interconnected Systems ◽  
Dynamic Output Feedback ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Dynamic Output ◽  
Control Scheme

Purpose This paper aims to focus on the design of a decentralized observation and control method for a class of large-scale systems characterized by nonlinear interconnected functions that are assumed to be uncertain but quadratically bounded. Design/methodology/approach Sufficient conditions, under which the designed control scheme can achieve the asymptotic stabilization of the augmented system, are developed within the Lyapunov theory in the framework of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Findings The derived LMIs are formulated under the form of an optimization problem whose resolution allows the concurrent computation of the decentralized control and observation gains and the maximization of the nonlinearity coverage tolerated by the system without becoming unstable. The reliable performances of the designed control scheme, compared to a distinguished decentralized guaranteed cost control strategy issued from the literature, are demonstrated by numerical simulations on an extensive application of a three-generator infinite bus power system. Originality/value The developed optimization problem subject to LMI constraints is efficiently solved by a one-step procedure to analyze the asymptotic stability and to synthesize all the control and observation parameters. Therefore, such a procedure enables to cope with the conservatism and suboptimal solutions procreated by optimization problems based on iterative algorithms with multi-step procedures usually used in the problem of dynamic output feedback decentralized control of nonlinear interconnected systems.

scholarly journals Large-Scale Synonymous Substitutions in Cucumber Mosaic Virus RNA 3 Facilitate Amino Acid Mutations in the Coat Protein

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 (22) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomofumi Mochizuki ◽  
Rie Ohara ◽  
Marilyn J. Roossinck
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Secondary Structure ◽  
Viral Genome ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Viral Rna ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Competitive Fitness ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Synonymous Substitutions ◽  
Cp Gene

ABSTRACTThe effect of large-scale synonymous substitutions in a small icosahedral, single-stranded RNA viral genome on virulence, viral titer, and protein evolution were analyzed. The coat protein (CP) gene of the Fny stain of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) was modified. We created four CP mutants in which all the codons of nine amino acids in the 5′ or 3′ half of the CP gene were replaced by either the most frequently or the least frequently used synonymous codons in monocot plants. When the dicot host (Nicotiana benthamiana) was inoculated with these four CP mutants, viral RNA titers in uninoculated symptomatic leaves decreased, while all mutants eventually showed mosaic symptoms similar to those for the wild type. The codon adaptation index of these four CP mutants against dicot genes was similar to those of the wild-type CP gene, indicating that the reduction of viral RNA titer was due to deleterious changes of the secondary structure of RNAs 3 and 4. When two 5′ mutants were serially passaged inN. benthamiana, viral RNA titers were rapidly restored but competitive fitness remained decreased. Although no nucleic acid changes were observed in the passaged wild-type CMV, one to three amino acid changes were observed in the synonymously mutated CP of each passaged virus, which were involved in recovery of viral RNA titer of 5′ mutants. Thus, we demonstrated that deleterious effects of the large-scale synonymous substitutions in the RNA viral genome facilitated the rapid amino acid mutation(s) in the CP to restore the viral RNA titer.IMPORTANCERecently, it has been known that synonymous substitutions in RNA virus genes affect viral pathogenicity and competitive fitness by alteration of global or local RNA secondary structure of the viral genome. We confirmed that large-scale synonymous substitutions in the CP gene of CMV resulted in decreased viral RNA titer. Importantly, when viral evolution was stimulated by serial-passage inoculation, viral RNA titer was rapidly restored, concurrent with a few amino acid changes in the CP. This novel finding indicates that the deleterious effects of large-scale nucleic acid mutations on viral RNA secondary structure are readily tolerated by structural changes in the CP, demonstrating a novel part of the adaptive evolution of an RNA viral genome. In addition, our experimental system for serial inoculation of large-scale synonymous mutants could uncover a role for new amino acid residues in the viral protein that have not been observed in the wild-type virus strains.

scholarly journals Biological Impact of a Large-Scale Genomic Inversion That Grossly Disrupts the Relative Positions of the Origin and Terminus Loci of theStreptococcus pyogenesChromosome

2019 ◽  
Vol 201 (17) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragutin J. Savic ◽  
Scott V. Nguyen ◽  
Kimberly McCullor ◽  
W. Michael McShan
Keyword(s):  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Parental Strain ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Galleria Mellonella ◽  
Acute Infection ◽  
Relative Length ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Rich Medium ◽  
Content Type

ABSTRACTA large-scale genomic inversion encompassing 0.79 Mb of the 1.816-Mb-longStreptococcus pyogenesserotype M49 strain NZ131 chromosome spontaneously occurs in a minor subpopulation of cells, and in this report genetic selection was used to obtain a stable lineage with this chromosomal rearrangement. This inversion, which drastically displaces theorisite relative to the terminus, changes the relative length of the replication arms so that one replichore is approximately 0.41 Mb while the other is about 1.40 Mb in length. Genomic reversion to the original chromosome constellation is not observed in PCR-monitored analyses after 180 generations of growth in rich medium. Compared to the parental strain, the inversion surprisingly demonstrates a nearly identical growth pattern in the first phase of the exponential phase, but differences do occur when resources in the medium become limited. When cultured separately in rich medium during prolonged stationary phase or in an experimental acute infection animal model (Galleria mellonella), the parental strain and the invertant have equivalent survival rates. However, when they are coincubated together, bothin vitroandin vivo, the survival of the invertant declines relative to the level for the parental strain. The accompanying aspect of the study suggests that inversions taking place nearoriCalways happen to secure the linkage oforiCto DNA sequences responsible for chromosome partition. The biological relevance of large-scale inversions is also discussed.IMPORTANCEBased on our previous work, we created to our knowledge the largest asymmetric inversion, covering 43.5% of theS. pyogenesgenome. In spite of a drastic replacement of origin of replication and the unbalanced size of replichores (1.4 Mb versus 0.41 Mb), the invertant, when not challenged with its progenitor, showed impressive vitality for growthin vitroand in pathogenesis assays. The mutant supports the existing idea that slightly deleterious mutations can provide the setting for secondary adaptive changes. Furthermore, comparative analysis of the mutant with previously published data strongly indicates that even large genomic rearrangements survive provided that the integrity of theoriCand the chromosome partition cluster is preserved.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document