scholarly journals Behaviour and decision making of Czech consumers when buying beverages 

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (No. 7) ◽  
pp. 341-346
Author(s):  
M. Foret ◽  
P. Procházka

The article deals with the problem of analysis of the factors that influence the behaviour and decision-making of consumers when buying beverages. The analysis was based on data about consumer behaviour obtained within the period of 1993–2004. The secondary analysis involved data collected within the framework of a marketing research project SHOPPING MONITOR performed by the marketing agencies INCOMA Research and GfK Prague in years 1999–2002. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that hypermarkets were dominating not only as a place of purchasing foodstuffs in general but also as a leading outlet for sale of beverages. Czech consumers preferred Czech brands of beverages and there was a new trend in increasing purchases of tea, juices and mineral water on the one hand and coffee and wine on the other. This indicates a change in consumption habits and reflects an interest in a healthier life style. 

Author(s):  
Stephan Meisel

Basically, Data Mining (DM) and Operations Research (OR) are two paradigms independent of each other. OR aims at optimal solutions of decision problems with respect to a given goal. DM is concerned with secondary analysis of large amounts of data (Hand et al., 2001). However, there are some commonalities. Both paradigms are application focused (Wu et al., 2003; White, 1991). Many Data Mining approaches are within traditional OR domains like logistics, manufacturing, health care or finance. Further, both DM and OR are multidisciplinary. Since its origins, OR has been relying on fields such as mathematics, statistics, economics and computer science. In DM, most of the current textbooks show a strong bias towards one of its founding disciplines, like database management, machine learning or statistics. Being multidisciplinary and application focused, it seems to be a natural step for both paradigms to gain synergies from integration. Thus, recently an increasing number of publications of successful approaches at the intersection of DM and OR can be observed. On the one hand, efficiency of the DM process is increased by use of advanced optimization models and methods originating from OR. On the other hand, effectiveness of decision making is increased by augmentation of traditional OR approaches with DM results. Meisel and Mattfeld (in press) provide a detailed discussion of the synergies of DM and OR.


Res Publica ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-22
Author(s):  
Jörgen Oosterwaal

On the basis of a chronological approach of the decision-making process with regard to the recognition of the PRC we concluded in an analytical part that the decision-making process was merely of the "hypo-institutional" type. Afterwards, we examined the effectivity of the Belgian policy in comparison with the international scientific literature on recognition and with the practice of other small European states. We concluded the non-recognition policy had been ineffective.  The relation between "hypo-institutional" decision-making on the one hand and ineffective public policy on the other hand is just one element within a broader research-project : "The effectivity of public policy according to type of decisionmaking".


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Muers ◽  
Rhiannon Grant

Recent developments in contemporary theology and theological ethics have directed academic attention to the interrelationships of theological claims, on the one hand, and core community-forming practices, on the other. This article considers the value for theology of attending to practice at the boundaries, the margins, or, as we prefer to express it, the threshold of a community’s institutional or liturgical life. We argue that marginal or threshold practices can offer insights into processes of theological change – and into the mediation between, and reciprocal influence of, ‘church’ and ‘world’. Our discussion focuses on an example from contemporary British Quakerism. ‘Threshing meetings’ are occasions at which an issue can be ‘threshed out’ as part of a collective process of decision-making. Drawing on a 2015 small-scale study (using a survey and focus group) of British Quaker attitudes to and experiences of threshing meetings, set in the wider context of Quaker tradition, we interpret these meetings as a space for working through – in context and over time – tensions within Quaker theology, practice and self-understandings, particularly those that emerge within, and in relation to, core practices of Quaker decision-making.


PMLA ◽  
1901 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-116
Author(s):  
W. H. Carruth

In Westermann's Monatshefte for January, 1891, and later in his ‘Life of Lessing,‘ Professor Erich Schmidt has outlined the chief features of the history and transformations of the story of the three rings in Europe. On examination it will be found that all the versions of the story belong to one or the other of two types, which are represented by the two earliest forms of the story preserved to us. The oldest version, that of the Spanish Jew Salomo ben Verga, tells of two rings or jewels only, which were in outward appearance exactly alike, and there is no question of one being genuine and the other false, but only of the relative value of the two. In the absence of the father it is found impossible to decide the question, and thus the decision between Christianity and Judaism is simply avoided. In Li Dis dou vrai aniel, a French poem of the end of the twelfth century, three rings appear, and to the original or genuine ring is attributed a marvelous healing power by which it may be recognized, and following which a decision is arrived at among the three religions, in this case in favor of Christianity, although ther were not wanting later narrators so bold as to hint that the true ring was possessed by Judaism. The version of Etienne de Bourbon, the versions of the Cento Novelle, the three versions of the Gesta Romanorum, all belong to one or the other of two types. We may refer to these two types as the Spanish type and the French type. Those of the first type, to which belongs also the version of Boccaccio, the one from which Lessing took his point of departure, avoid a decision, implying that all religions are equally authoritative, but without inherent or inner evidence of their quality. Those of the second type, to which in many of its features Lessing's final version of the story is allied, lead to a decision, making religion of divine origin indeed, but supplying a test, that of good works, whereby the true religion may be recognized.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Eskelund Knudsen

This article is an empirical analysis of history teaching as a communicative process. Dialogic history teaching develops as a designed meaning-making process that depends on thorough pedagogical strategies and decisions, and requires cohesion in teacher expectations, introductions and interventions. A micro-dialogic study is presented in this article to document a paradoxical teaching situation where history as subject-related content all but disappeared from a group of students' meaning-making processes because they were preoccupied with figuring out their teacher's intentions. History teaching thus turned into 'just teaching' without the teacher or the students being aware of it. A strong emphasis on history teaching as a communicative process and dialogue as a key pedagogical tool have potential with regard to pedagogical decision-making and strategies on the one hand, and for relationships between students and history as subject-related content on the other. The analysis presented in this article contributes to a growing field of studies on dialogic history teaching, of which the focus on students as an important part of classroom dialogues is central.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Lea Ringskou ◽  
Christoffer Vengsgaard ◽  
Caroline Bach

ResuméArtiklen omhandler et toårigt forskningsprojekt på VIA Pædagoguddannelse om klubpædagogisk professionsidentitet. I forskningsprojektet er der udført 11 kvalitative semistrukturerede interviews. Ud fra interviewene konstruerer vi analytisk tre dominerende narrativer: klubpædagogen som demokratisk medborgerskaber, frihedens klubpædagog og klubpædagogen som sælger. Ud fra narrativerne præsenterer vi tre større historisk og kulturelt forankrede nøglefortællinger om klubpædagogisk professionsidentitet. De to første narrativer indeholder nøglefortællinger om demokrati og frihed, der trækker på klassisk reformpædagogik og kritisk frigørende pædagogik. Heroverfor indeholder narrativet pædagogen som sælger en historisk nyere nøglefortælling om markedsgørelse. Vi betragter mødet mellem nøglefortællingerne som en mere overordnet fortælling om klubpædagogisk professionsidentitet mellem tradition og forandring. Afslutningsvis diskuterer vi, hvilke udfordringer og muligheder mødet mellem nøglefortællingerne, nærmere bestemt mødet mellem demokrati og frihed på den ene side og markedsgørelse på den anden, potentielt kan indeholde i forhold til klubpædagogisk professionsidentitet og omverdenens anerkendelse. På den ene side kan markedsgørelsen tolkes som risiko for dekonstruktion af klubpædagogisk professionsidentitet, der vil kunne udhule nøglefortællingerne om demokrati og frihed. På den anden side kan der argumenteres for, at netop nøglefortællingen om markedsgørelsen kan tolkes som mulighed for at styrke de to andre nøglefortællinger og at den sigt vil kunne bidrage til stabilisering og anerkendelse af klubpædagogisk professionsidentitet. AbstractLeisure time pedagogue working in youth clubs: between democracy, freedom and marketing? Three key narratives in professional identity of leisure time pedagogues working in youth clubsIn this article, we present the results of a research project about the professional identity of leisure time pedagogue working in different forms of youth clubs with children and teenagers from 10 to 18+ years of age. We base the analysis on 11 qualitative semi-structured interviews. Through the analysis, we construct three key narratives: a key narrative concerning democracy, a key narrative concerning freedom and a key narrative concerning marketing (sale). We use these three key narratives to illustrate the complexity of the professional identity of the leisure time pedagogue. Both tradition and renewal characterizes the professional identity of the leisure time pedagogues. In the final section, we discuss the encounter between the key narratives of democracy and freedom on the one hand and the key narrative of marketing on the other. What are the possible pitfalls and potentials in this encounter, when the pedagogues strives for the acknowledgement and acceptance of professional identity?


1995 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 487-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Ho Chung

Spatial aspects of power have been relatively neglected in the field of political science in general, with the notable exception of federalism. Many have argued that the study of political power has generally confined itself to the national level and paid scant attention to the interactions between the central government on the one hand and regional and local authorities on the other. Several tendencies have worked against the flourishing of political research on central-local government relations in the last three decades. First, in methodological terms, the “behavioural revolution” that swept the discipline caused a sudden premature end to the institutional analysis so crucial to central-local government relations. Secondly, in thematic terms, political scientists have been overly preoccupied with central-level processes of decision-making while neglecting the politics of central-local relations. Thirdly, in conceptual terms, the rise of “state” as an encompassing concept was facilitated largely at the expense of complex intra-governmental dynamics.


Res Publica ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-244
Author(s):  
Rudolf Maes

In the years 1975-1976 the Belgian government has given high priority to the restructuring of local government, resp. by the means of mergers of communes : the number of communes has decreased by that way from 2,359 to 596.In the decision-making emphasized were the initiatives taken by the Minister of the Interior as wel! on the domain of the elaboration of the proposals to delimitate the territory of the new communes as on the domain of the defining of the terms of execution with regard to the personnel, the finances, the transition of goods, etc.  About the proposals on the delimitation of the territory the local governmentscould only give advice ; they have been sanctioned by the legislative assemblees at the end of 1975 after rather difficult and heated debates.During this period an important resistance developed : on the one side from the communal milieu itself and on the other side from the opposition parties, esp. the Belgian Socialist Party not participating in the government that had made the drawing of the new map of communes according to a broad plan to its aim.Nevertheless, the decision-making also has to be seen from the fact that the opposition parties agreed with the principle of the mergers : they mainly contested the way in which the mergers were executed.The abolition of the federations of communes around the Brussels agglomeration, decided in the same context, has to be seen in the light of the typical Belgian problem of the coexistence of different linguistic groups.


Author(s):  
Evangelos Grigoroudis ◽  
Vassilis S. Kouikoglou ◽  
Yannis A. Phillis

The provision of adequate, reliable, and affordable energy, in conformity with social and environmental requirements is a vital part of sustainable development. Currently, countries are facing a two-fold energy challenge: on the one hand they should assure the provision of environmentally sustainable energy, while, on the other, energy services should be reliable, affordable, and socially acceptable. To evaluate such aspects of energy services one needs energy sustainability barometers, which provide the means to monitor the impacts of energy policies and assist policymakers in relevant decision making. Although sustainability is an ambiguous, complex, and polymorphous concept, all energy sustainability barometers incorporate the three major sustainability dimensions: social, economic, and environmental. In this chapter, we review three models for assessing the sustainability of energy development of countries: ESI, SAFE, and EAPI. We also present a brief discussion of the results, the applied methodologies, and the underlying assumptions of these sustainability barometers.


2020 ◽  
pp. 100-117
Author(s):  
Sarah Brayne

This chapter looks at the promise and peril of police use of big data analytics for inequality. On the one hand, big data analytics may be a means by which to ameliorate persistent inequalities in policing. Data can be used to “police the police” and replace unparticularized suspicion of racial minorities and human exaggeration of patterns with less biased predictions of risk. On the other hand, data-intensive police surveillance practices are implicated in the reproduction of inequality in at least four ways: by deepening the surveillance of individuals already under suspicion, codifying a secondary surveillance network of individuals with no direct police contact, widening the criminal justice dragnet unequally, and leading people to avoid institutions that collect data and are fundamental to social integration. Crucially, as currently implemented, “data-driven” decision-making techwashes, both obscuring and amplifying social inequalities under a patina of objectivity.


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