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Yes / Although many modelling and prediction frameworks for corporate bankruptcy and distress have been proposed, the relative performance evaluation of prediction models is criticised due to the assessment exercise using a single measure of one criterion at a time, which leads to reporting conflicting results. Mousavi et al. (Int Rev Financ Anal 42:64–75, 2015) proposed an orientation-free super-efficiency DEA-based framework to overcome this methodological issue. However, within a super-efficiency DEA framework, the reference benchmark changes from one prediction model evaluation to another, which in some contexts might be viewed as “unfair” benchmarking. In this paper, we overcome this issue by proposing a slacks-based context-dependent DEA (SBM-CDEA) framework to evaluate competing distress prediction models. In addition, we propose a hybrid crossbenchmarking- cross-efficiency framework as an alternative methodology for ranking DMUs that are heterogeneous. Furthermore, using data on UK firms listed on London Stock Exchange, we perform a comprehensive comparative analysis of the most popular corporate distress prediction models; namely, statistical models, under both mono criterion and multiple criteria frameworks considering several performance measures. Also, we propose new statistical models using macroeconomic indicators as drivers of distress.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the context of ad pictures differs between Chinese ads and US ads and whether it can influence consumers' ad attitudes. Design/methodology/approach: An ad content analysis and a laboratory experiment were conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings: Findings suggest that contextualized ads appear more frequently in Chinese magazines because East Asians have a context-dependent mode of thinking while westerners have a context-independent mode of thinking. However, the effect of culture on advertising is moderated by product class (goods vs service), product category, and magazine category. Moreover, East Asians prefer contextualized ads to non-contextualized ones, while westerners prefer non-contextualized ads to contextualized ads. However, the effect of culture on ad attitudes may be moderated by ad involvement. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this study stem from its being based on ad samples from China and its use of students to test ad attitudes. Practical implications: The findings allow managers to better determine whether and under what conditions to use contextualized or non-contextualized advertisements. Originality/value: The study's examination of the effect of culture on the context of ad format and effect of context on persuasion in this context constitutes a unique and valuable contribution to the literature. The paper also contributes much to the literature by checking cultural differences across 17 magazine categories, compared to the vast majority of studies analyzing ad content between eastern and western cultures, which have been based on ads from only a few sources.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the context of ad pictures differs between Chinese ads and US ads and whether it can influence consumers' ad attitudes. Design/methodology/approach: An ad content analysis and a laboratory experiment were conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings: Findings suggest that contextualized ads appear more frequently in Chinese magazines because East Asians have a context-dependent mode of thinking while westerners have a context-independent mode of thinking. However, the effect of culture on advertising is moderated by product class (goods vs service), product category, and magazine category. Moreover, East Asians prefer contextualized ads to non-contextualized ones, while westerners prefer non-contextualized ads to contextualized ads. However, the effect of culture on ad attitudes may be moderated by ad involvement. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this study stem from its being based on ad samples from China and its use of students to test ad attitudes. Practical implications: The findings allow managers to better determine whether and under what conditions to use contextualized or non-contextualized advertisements. Originality/value: The study's examination of the effect of culture on the context of ad format and effect of context on persuasion in this context constitutes a unique and valuable contribution to the literature. The paper also contributes much to the literature by checking cultural differences across 17 magazine categories, compared to the vast majority of studies analyzing ad content between eastern and western cultures, which have been based on ads from only a few sources.

No description available.

As wireless communication services get more and more pervasively available, mobile people can easily interact with service providers and handily communicate with each other through mobile devices. In the mobile environment, mobile users can plan their activity schedules and run their schedules with the assistance of mobile devices. When mobile users are engaged in their activities, they can instantly perceive contextual information and their activity schedules therefore tend to be context dependent, i.e., mobile users may alter their objectives and decision makings as soon as the environmental context varies. Besides, for a mobile user, once any exception happens, he/she is apt to adapt his/her activity schedule to reduce the impact of the exception. In the mobile environment, since the environmental resources are limited and can¡¦t satisfy all mobile users¡¦ demands, conflicts are likely to occur while mobile users plan, alter or adapt their personal activity schedules. This study concentrates itself on resolving the conflicts. This conflict problem is formulated as a multi-criteria context-dependent DCOP (distributed constraint optimization problem). This problem is complicated and highly dynamic, and the joint optimality to this problem might be time-variant. This study proposes an integrated agents system SPA and a novel problem solving approach 2S-DORA to enable mobile users to coordinate their activities to maintain optimality. The SPA, which integrates the Simulated and Physical Agents, is employed to enhance mobile users¡¦ sensory, analytic, reasoning and social abilities. The 2S-DORA takes advantage of the SPA abilities to help mobile users quickly and effectively adapt themselves to the context variations and to the exceptions. This study takes a traveling backpacker problem as an example to demonstrate how the proposed SPA and 2S-DORA contribute to solve the multi-criteria context-dependent DCOP. Five experiments finally are designed to evaluate the performance of the application of SPA and 2S-DORA.

The research object is probabilistic properties of non-coding DNA (nucleotide) sequences. Available models of DNA sequences are reviewed and their basic assumptions are verified by statistical analysis of bacterial DNA sequences. On the ground of this analysis, the definition of non-informative genetic sequence is introduced and a mathematical model of “genetic noise” is proposed. Computer simulations of non-coding (non-informative) nucleotide sequence evolution are performed and resulting sequences are compared with native ones. The task of visualisation of genetic sequences is an important part of the work. The main tasks of the work are the following: 1. to analyse the statistical features (independence, Markovity, long-range dependence, etc.) of bacterial DNA sequences, especially non-coding ones, 2. to formulate a definition of a non-informative nucleotide sequence (“genetic noise”) and to propose its mathematical model, 3. using the methodology of functional data analysis and the distance metrics between oligonucleotides, to propose an efficient method for nucleotide sequence visualisation. General Conclusions: 1. The probability model of non-informative nucleotide sequence or, in other words, “genetic noise” (an analogue of the “white noise”) is proposed and its properties are studied mainly by computer simulation. The long-range dependence in DNA sequences has been extensively studied and is considered as an evidence of their complexity and hierarchical structure... [to full text]

The research object is probabilistic properties of non-coding DNA (nucleotide) sequences. Available models of DNA sequences are reviewed and their basic assumptions are verified by statistical analysis of bacterial DNA sequences. On the ground of this analysis, the definition of non-informative genetic sequence is introduced and a mathematical model of “genetic noise” is proposed. Computer simulations of non-coding (non-informative) nucleotide sequence evolution are performed and resulting sequences are compared with native ones. The task of visualisation of genetic sequences is an important part of the work. The main tasks of the work are the following: 1. to analyse the statistical features (independence, Markovity, long-range dependence, etc.) of bacterial DNA sequences, especially non-coding ones, 2. to formulate a definition of a non-informative nucleotide sequence (“genetic noise”) and to propose its mathematical model, 3. using the methodology of functional data analysis and the distance metrics between oligonucleotides, to propose an efficient method for nucleotide sequence visualisation. General Conclusions: 1. The probability model of non-informative nucleotide sequence or, in other words, “genetic noise” (an analogue of the “white noise”) is proposed and its properties are studied mainly by computer simulation. The long-range dependence in DNA sequences has been extensively studied and is considered as an evidence of their complexity and hierarchical structure... [to full text]

Prediction of corporate bankruptcy (or distress) is one of the major activities in auditing firms’ risks and uncertainties. The design of reliable models to predict distress is crucial for many decision-making processes. Although a variety of models have been designed to predict distress, the relative performance evaluation of competing prediction models remains an exercise that is unidimensional in nature. To be more specific, although some studies use several performance criteria and their measures to assess the relative performance of distress prediction models, the assessment exercise of competing prediction models is restricted to their ranking by a single measure of a single criterion at a time, which leads to reporting conflicting results. The first essay of this research overcomes this methodological issue by proposing an orientation-free super-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model as a multi-criteria assessment framework. Furthermore, the study performs an exhaustive comparative analysis of the most popular bankruptcy modelling frameworks for UK data. Also, it addresses two important research questions; namely, do some modelling frameworks perform better than others by design? and to what extent the choice and/or the design of explanatory variables and their nature affect the performance of modelling frameworks? Further, using different static and dynamic statistical frameworks, this chapter proposes new Failure Prediction Models (FPMs). However, within a super-efficiency DEA framework, the reference benchmark changes from one prediction model evaluation to another one, which in some contexts might be viewed as “unfair” benchmarking. The second essay overcomes this issue by proposing a Slacks-Based Measure Context-Dependent DEA (SBM-CDEA) framework to evaluate the competing Distress Prediction Models (DPMs). Moreover, it performs an exhaustive comparative analysis of the most popular corporate distress prediction frameworks under both a single criterion and multiple criteria using data of UK firms listed on London Stock Exchange (LSE). Further, this chapter proposes new DPMs using different static and dynamic statistical frameworks. Another shortcoming of the existing studies on performance evaluation lies in the use of static frameworks to compare the performance of DPMs. The third essay overcomes this methodological issue by suggesting a dynamic multi-criteria performance assessment framework, namely, Malmquist SBM-DEA, which by design, can monitor the performance of competing prediction models over time. Further, this study proposes new static and dynamic distress prediction models. Also, the study addresses several research questions as follows; what is the effect of information on the performance of DPMs? How the out-of-sample performance of dynamic DPMs compares to the out-of-sample performance of static ones? What is the effect of the length of training sample on the performance of static and dynamic models? Which models perform better in forecasting distress during the years with Higher Distress Rate (HDR)? On feature selection, studies have used different types of information including accounting, market, macroeconomic variables and the management efficiency scores as predictors. The recently applied techniques to take into account the management efficiency of firms are two-stage models. The two-stage DPMs incorporate multiple inputs and outputs to estimate the efficiency measure of a corporation relative to the most efficient ones, in the first stage, and use the efficiency score as a predictor in the second stage. The survey of the literature reveals that most of the existing studies failed to have a comprehensive comparison between two-stage DPMs. Moreover, the choice of inputs and outputs for DEA models that estimate the efficiency measures of a company has been restricted to accounting variables and features of the company. The fourth essay adds to the current literature of two-stage DPMs in several respects. First, the study proposes to consider the decomposition of Slack-Based Measure (SBM) of efficiency into Pure Technical Efficiency (PTE), Scale Efficiency (SE), and Mix Efficiency (ME), to analyse how each of these measures individually contributes to developing distress prediction models. Second, in addition to the conventional approach of using accounting variables as inputs and outputs of DEA models to estimate the measure of management efficiency, this study uses market information variables to calculate the measure of the market efficiency of companies. Third, this research provides a comprehensive analysis of two-stage DPMs through applying different DEA models at the first stage – e.g., input-oriented vs. output oriented, radial vs. non-radial, static vs. dynamic, to compute the measures of management efficiency and market efficiency of companies; and also using dynamic and static classifier frameworks at the second stage to design new distress prediction models.

Granivores are important components of sagebrush communities in western North America. These same regions are being altered by the invasion of the exotic annual Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) that alters physical and biological dynamics in ways that appear to promote its persistence. This research directly relates to the restoration of B. tectorum-dominated systems in two inter-related ways. First, because these landscapes have large quantities of seeds applied during restoration, it is important to determine the major granivore communities in intact sagebrush communities and in nearby cheatgrass-dominated communities. Second, it is important to develop an understanding of patterns of seed harvest by granivores. In addition to the data chapters there are two review chapters; Chapter 1 highlights factors contributing to seed removal and Chapter 7 provides ecologically based techniques that could minimize the negative consequences of granivores during ecological restoration. Common groups of ants showed increased abundances; uncommon species and functional groups were generally negatively impacted by cheatgrass (Chapter 2). Conversely, rodents were negatively impacted by conversion to cheatgrass (Chapter 4). Ant seed removal was highly context-dependent (Chapter 3), depending on the background vegetation (large-scale among-patch effects), foraging distance from the nest mound (small-scale among-patch effects), and the presence of other seed species in mixture (within-patch effects). In addition, cheatgrass provided associational resistance to native seeds in mixture, meaning the presence of cheatgrass increased native seed survival. In Chapter 5 a novel statistical technique in the ecological sciences showed that rodents have marked preferences for some seeds over others and that more seeds were removed in sagebrush compared to cheatgrass-dominated sites, although associational effects among seed mixtures were not detected. In Chapter 6 we show that the amount of seed harvested depended on both intraspecific and interspecific seed density. B. tectorum seeds had associational susceptibility (increased harvest) in the presence of native seeds. Although the reciprocal effect may occur, we did not find statistical support for it. These sets of studies are not only of basic ecological interests, but are also important for developing management strategies for restoration of these degraded lands.