Sliced Designs for Multi-Platform Online Experiments

Abstract

Multivariate testing is a popular method to improve websites, mobile apps, and email campaigns. A unique aspect of testing in the online space is that it needs to be conducted across multiple platforms such as a desktop and a smartphone. The existing experimental design literature does not offer precise guidance for such a multi-platform context. In this article, we introduce a multi-platform design framework that allows us to measure the effect of the design factors for each platform and the interaction effect of the design factors with platforms. Substantively, the resulting designs are of great importance for testing digital campaigns across platforms. We illustrate this in an empirical email application to maximize engagement for a digital magazine. We introduce a novel “sliced effect hierarchy principle” and develop design criteria to generate factorial designs for multi-platform experiments. To help construct such designs, we prove a theorem that connects the proposed designs to the well-known minimum aberration designs. We find that experimental versions made for one platform should be similar to other platforms. From the standpoint of real-world application, such homogeneous subdesigns are cheaper to implement. To assist practitioners, we provide an algorithm to construct the designs that we propose.     

Knowledge sharing behaviors in social media

PurposeUsers on Social Media (SM) platforms make many decisions related to content sharing, such as whether to create or reuse content, whether to label for easy access by an interest group or not, and whether to disseminate to targeted individuals or broadcast to general audiences. In this study, we investigated if these content-related strategies on SM, called social media knowledge sharing behaviors, are determined by user characteristics.MethodologyUsing concepts from Self-Motivation Theory and the Affordance Theory, we examined if the knowledge sharing behaviors are influenced or correlated with user characteristics, such as the intensity of engagement on SM, a strong preference attitude for a SM platform, and multiple functional intentions for using SM. Based on this survey study of one hundred and twenty-three subjects, we developed hierarchical regression analyses to test if the SM user's knowledge decisions (Creation, Framing and Targeting) are corelated with the user's online usage intensity, their SM online platform preferences, and their functional intentions (Intensity, Preferences and Functionality). We complemented the regression models with a more comprehensive path analysis for an integrative hypothesis testing.FindingsThe main findings show that knowledge creation and knowledge targeting behaviors were correlated with multiple functional intentions (or needs) of users, meaning that users who utilized SM in order to fulfill many needs create and broadcast knowledge more than users that utilized SM in order to fulfill fewer needs.OriginalityThe study investigates the relationship between detailed knowledge sharing behaviors afforded by the social media tools and different user self-determination factors, such as intensity, preference and needs. This study further describes the attributes of social media sharing as a bundle of content sharing strategies of creation, sharing and targeting, which are used differently based on different user characteristics and motivations.     

A multi objective genetic algorithm approach to a design parameter generation for a robot platform on three omnidirectional wheels

Abstract

Superior mobility while ensuring maximum stability is a key requirement for most mobile robots. These requirements are fulfilled if the robot has a well-designed robotic platform that serves as a physical interface between its body and the floor. Although there are different design and development approaches for car-like robotic platforms, there is little design guidance for robot platform on three omnidirectional wheels. Hence, a method for generating optimal design parameters of such robotic platforms is proposed in this work. An objective function relevant to platform stability, the robot mass, and driving torque is formulated to form a min–max optimization problem. Finally, a trade-off between the design variables of the robotic platform is carried out from the result of Multi Objective Genetic Algorithm in Matlab. An omnidirectional wheeled robotic platform is developed to study the stability and mobility analysis of this robotic platform for various maneuver modes. This approach is seen to be effective for generating design variables of omnidirectional three wheels robotic platform that has maximal stability and minimal driving torque while traversing across inclined and flat floors. As a result, this optimization approach can be used to yield better design analysis with reduced reworking cost and manufacturing time.     

Challenges to integrating planning and policy-making with environmental assessment on a regional scale – a multi-institutional perspective

Abstract

Regional environmental assessment (EA) requires the participation of policy- and plan-making institutions to formulate, implement and monitor regional environmental management strategies. However, there is little understanding of what effective integration is in the context of regional EA and from the perspectives of planners and policy-makers involved. This paper seeks to explore how institutional actors perceive cross-domain integration vis-à-vis their own involvement in regional EAs. Thirty-eight participants from four regional EA initiatives in Canada shared their perspectives in an online survey. Three types of silo effects are identified: (1) institutional – intricately linked to factors such as coordination, goals and expectations, leadership and capacity; (2) disciplinary – characterized by limited communication and scepticism around data sharing; and (3) transactional – tendency of actors to emphasize individual narrow perspective rather than collective social and environmental outcomes. Additional findings reveal the importance of learning and multiple domain expertise as opportunities for enhancing cross-domain integration in regional EA practice. Finally, the study concludes that proactive consideration of potential silo effects is necessary for improved regional EA outcomes, and to facilitate more effective regional resource governance.     

Platforms and industrial change

ABSTRACT

Digital platforms are reorganising markets, restructuring the labour force, and redefining the scope of competition. These new intermediaries are transforming economic value creation, industrial structures, and innovative activity, all of which are about to undergo their biggest changes in the post-war era. Platforms have power over their ecosystem members, as algorithms mould users’ incentives to elicit particular responses. This raises the question of whether non-platform firms will be overpowered by the likes of Amazon and Google that have considerable advantages, such as massive data centres and the ability to cross-feed online traffic. The answer is conditional, but its existence puts pressure on the state to adopt an aggressive regulatory role. At this time, we do not have a framework for properly regulating platform businesses. This special issue examines how ecosystems created by platforms reorganise markets and how value creation and capture by incumbents and entrants is affected.     

Regulation strictness and supply in the platform economy: the case of Airbnb and Couchsurfing

ABSTRACT

To what extent is regulation associated with supply in the platform economy (PE)? We address this research question by analyzing the relationship between the strictness of rules/laws in 59 U.S. cities and the number of short-stay accommodation offerings. We find that the stricter regulation is, the higher the supply in these platforms. We also investigate how the presence (or lack thereof) of money transactions in the platform affects this relationship. We discover that the presence of money transactions in these platforms negatively moderates the positive relationship between regulation strictness and the supply of short-stay accommodations. This paper contributes to the literature by investigating how aggregate supply in the PE is affected by legal uncertainties, thereby joining the debate on how digital platforms are reforming labor practices in major parts of the economy and industrial value chains.     

基于大数据的用户画像构建方法与运用

目的以大数据环境为研究基础,为产品研发初期获取准确性较高的用户画像,优化其构建方法。方法基于定性与定量综合集成方法的三层次理论框架,首先通过定量研究挖掘线上社交平台的多模态用户数据并对其进行文本分析,提取具有高影响的用户属性因子。其次,使用优化模糊C—均值聚类算法(FCM算法)对用户属性因子进行聚类分析,获得几类用户属性原型。将其原型作为构建画像的维度框架,通过线下定性研究方法对样本用户进行调研,挖掘深层次需求动机。最终,构建出几类用户画像原型。结论以中国手机年轻用户相机拍照行为研究对象,通过线上社交平台和电商平台的公开数据获取用户拍照相关的评论信息,对其进行文本挖掘和分析,并对分析后的数据进行提取、聚类和定性研究,从而获得3类不同拍照类型的用户画像模型。     

Truly Concomitant and Independently Expressed Short‐ and Long‐Term Plasticity in a Bi2O2Se‐Based Three‐Terminal Memristor

Concomitance of diverse synaptic plasticity across different timescales produces complex cognitive processes. To achieve comparable cognitive complexity in memristive neuromorphic systems, devices that are capable of emulating short‐term (STP) and long‐term plasticity (LTP) concomitantly are essential. In existing memristors, however, STP and LTP can only be induced selectively because of the inability to be decoupled using different loci and mechanisms. In this work, the first demonstration of truly concomitant STP and LTP is reported in a three‐terminal memristor that uses independent physical phenomena to represent each form of plasticity. The emerging layered material Bi₂O₂Se is used for memristors for the first time, opening up the prospects for ultrathin, high‐speed, and low‐power neuromorphic devices. The concerted action of STP and LTP allows full‐range modulation of the transient synaptic efficacy, from depression to facilitation, by stimulus frequency or intensity, providing a versatile device platform for neuromorphic function implementation. A heuristic recurrent neural circuitry model is developed to simulate the intricate “sleep–wake cycle autoregulation” process, in which the concomitance of STP and LTP is posited as a key factor in enabling this neural homeostasis. This work sheds new light on the development of generic memristor platforms for highly dynamic neuromorphic computing.     

老年人在线学习平台使用意愿及设计策略研究

目的 针对人口老龄化问题,从老年人在线学习平台使用意愿及其影响因素入手,结合现有学习平台的特征,探求老年人在线学习平台的设计策略,进而增强老年人的使用意愿,使在线教育的价值得以体现。方法 首先,以文献研究为基础,结合扩展技术接受模型与创新扩散理论构建使用意愿影响因素假设模型;其次,选取研究对象进行问卷调研,并对数据进行信效度分析;最后,运用结构方程模型分析老年人在线学习平台使用意愿的主要因素和内在因果关系。结果 感知有用性与兼容性直接影响用户的使用意愿;感知易用性、感知自主性、内容质量则间接影响用户的使用意愿。结论 根据各因素导向,提出增强老年人在线学习平台用户体验设计策略,包含有效性原则、简易性原则、胜任性原则、一致性原则,以期为在线学习平台的适老化设计与改造提供有效依据。     

Dancing with wolves: how value creation and value capture dynamics affect complementor participation in industry platforms

ABSTRACT

Industry platforms shape the interactions among participating firms, especially between the platform owner and its complementors. However, little research has examined how such dynamics would influence the initial participation by complementors. Based on the coopetition perspective, we develop hypotheses about the relationship between platform owner’s value appropriation potential and complementor participation, at platform initiation. Using a comprehensive dataset of open source software (OSS) platform initiations, this study empirically examines how the resource profiles of platform owner firms may affect complementor participation in the platform. We find that when the platform owner has higher percentage of sales from complementary market segments, the number of complementors for the platform is lower. Furthermore, the platform owner’s sales growth positively moderates this relationship. The findings shed new lights on how the value creation and value appropriation dynamics between the platform owner and its complementors may shape the outcome of industry platform launching.     

Development of rapidly dissolving pellets within the Quality by Design approach

Abstract

The purpose of this study was the development of novel, fast disintegrating, effervescent pellets by employing the direct pelletization technique as a single step process. In line with the Quality by Design (QbD) regulatory framework, statistical experimental design was extensively applied to correlate significant formulation and process variables with the critical quality attributes of the product. Pellets were studied with regards to sphericity, size and size distribution. In contrast to the existing multiparticulate platforms, this development integrated only water-soluble excipients to facilitate the multifunctional use of the final dosage form. The application of a screening fractional factorial design augmented to a full factorial design set the roadmap for the rational selection of the composition and process parameters, revealing in parallel the positive contribution of the powder feeder on the CQAs, when the critical process and formulation factors were properly adjusted. The response surface methodology was exploited for the final process optimization phase, which allowed the construction of appropriate mathematical models connecting the input variables and the CQAs under study. The implementation of the desirability function, lead to the optimum formulation and process settings for the production of pellets with narrow size distribution and geometric mean diameter of approximately 800?μm. In conclusion, using a lean approach supported by design of experiments (DoE) techniques within the QbD framework, a novel multifunctional formulation platform has been developed.     

Function-technology-based product platform formation

Product platforms have been effectively used by many successful companies for product family design. Technological advancements and changes in customer needs pose problems for robustly designing product platforms over a given planning horizon. To date, most product platform formation approaches are directed by structural (subassemblies and components) considerations and are seldom undertaken at the conceptual design stage. We argue that product platform design should commence at the conceptual design stage rather than the detailed design stage. It is noteworthy that physical structures are the end results of designs already frozen at higher level of functional abstraction. Hence, tackling the platform formation problem should start much before structures are materialized. We propose that the product platform formation approach should be considered at two different stages: (i) conceptual design stage; and (ii) detailed design stage. In reference to the Function?–?Behavior?–?Structure model proposed by Gero and Kannengiesser (Gero, J.S. and Kannengiesser, U., Function-behavior-structure: A model for social situated agents. Workshop on Cognitive Modeling of Agents and Multi-Agent Interactions, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2003, Acapulco, Mexico, 2003, pp. 101–107), conceptual design would refer to the design of products at function and technology stage, whereas detailed design would refer to the design of products at the structure stage. This paper discusses a method to form product platforms at the Function-Technology stage which can be correspondingly mapped to the structural stages. Thus, forming product platforms at a higher level of abstraction would enable a better understanding of the complications met at structural level. The FT approach uses Function Technology Ant Colony Optimization (FTACO) method to determine product platform configuration(s). We demonstrate the proposed approach using the example of a computer mouse product family.     

Going local: placing entrepreneurial microgeographies in a larger regional context

ABSTRACT

As cities seek to promote innovation, they are increasingly investing in localised institutional entrepreneurial supports. Some institutions are hyperlocal, operating within distinct geographic sub-spaces and funnelling entrepreneurial ventures within spatially bounded microgeographies. In this paper, we focus on the University of North Carolina, where actors from the business school helped build a unique web of hyperlocal entrepreneurial supports that reinforced core educational and research missions but also culminated in proximate university business incubators. We examine how this programmatic changes correspond to a marked increase in entrepreneurial intensity as well as ageographic tightening of firms in and around the campus. Yet we also find evidence for an additional effect, namely an earlier launch of entrepreneurial firms based on less-tested technologies. The results speak to the power of institutional actors in shaping entrepreneurial activities while raising broader questions about the impact of university programming on regional industry and innovation.     

分布式认知视角下在线教育平台设计策略

目的 以分布式认知理论为指导,通过调研和案例综合分析在线学习过程中内容、工具、情境交互的影响要素,探究分布式认知视角下在线教育平台的设计策略,为在线教育平台的体验设计提供指导。方法 首先,通过文献探析分布式认知理论介入在线教育平台体验设计的特征和优势,采用问卷法和访谈法进行用户调研,明确分布式认知视角下在线学习的影响要素。其次,对Coursera平台进行案例分析,将各要素分布到各自的语境中进行分析。最后提炼出分布式认知视角下在线教育平台的体验设计策略。结论 所提出的设计策略的可视化知识图谱、促进深度交互的协同工具和建立互惠共享的社交行为等设计方法,能够满足在线学习用户的学习需求,解决其学习自主性不高、沟通协作效率低等问题。     

Fine-Grained Binary Analysis Method for Privacy Leakage Detection on the Cloud Platform

Nowadays cloud architecture is widely applied on the internet. New malware aiming at the privacy data stealing or crypto currency mining is threatening the security of cloud platforms. In view of the problems with existing application behavior monitoring methods such as coarse-grained analysis, high performance overhead and lack of applicability, this paper proposes a new fine-grained binary program monitoring and analysis method based on multiple system level components, which is used to detect the possible privacy leakage of applications installed on cloud platforms. It can be used online in cloud platform environments for fine-grained automated analysis of target programs, ensuring the stability and continuity of program execution. We combine the external interception and internal instrumentation and design a variety of optimization schemes to further reduce the impact of fine-grained analysis on the performance of target programs, enabling it to be employed in actual environments. The experimental results show that the proposed method is feasible and can achieve the acceptable analysis performance while consuming a small amount of system resources. The optimization schemes can go beyond traditional dynamic instrumentation methods with better analytical performance and can be more applicable to online analysis on cloud platforms.     

Development of a telepresence robot with adaptive shared controller

ABSTRACT

This study presents the design and control of a telepresence robot based on an omnidirectional mobile platform. A personal computer is used as a user interface for communication via internet to a laptop computer placed on the mobile platform. The laptop computer receives user’s commands to control the mobile robot. Collisions of robot with obstacle can still occur during remote controlling because of the limitation of a fixed camera on the robot and/or internet latency. We first use an artificial potential field to prevent these collisions, and then design an adaptive shared controller (ASC) to improve the performance. This ASC method modulates the weights of human control and assistance control online not only according to environmental factors, but also based on the user’s control performance. Meanwhile, we use the iterated closest point (ICP) algorithm to build a map for providing user functional reference. The experimental results show that ASC is efficient in both obstacle avoidance and user workload reduction.     

The importance of vocational education institutions in manufacturing regions: adding content to a broad definition of regional innovation systems

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the importance of vocational education institutions in regional innovation systems, and the role skilled workers have in implementing new technologies in manufacturing industries. The case study is founded on a broad conceptualisation of RISs, emphasising the importance of all relevant parts of the industrial and institutional system. We analyse the collaboration between industry actors and vocational education institutions in two Norwegian manufacturing regions. The analysis demonstrates how, in developing new education programmes tailored for contemporary and future manufacturing, vocational education institutions are essential for manufacturers’ competitiveness. The paper adds empirical content to the hitherto highly theoretical concept of broad RISs, emphasising the key role of skilled workers and engineering technicians when implementing new manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, we explain how the vocational education institutions and RISs are co-evolving with emerging technologies in terms of changed knowledge demands in the industry, prompting new education programmes in vocational education institutions.     

Institutional considerations in watershed cumulative effects assessment and management

This paper examines the role of institutional arrangements as either facilitating or constraining the practice of watershed cumulative effects assessment and management (W-CEAM) within the context of the Grand River watershed (GRW), Canada. The research is based on document review, a focus group and 29 interviews conducted with academic experts, project proponents, government and watershed agencies representatives, non-governmental organization researchers, First Nations, and others with interest in the GRW. Information was gathered on existing policy and planning instruments, and relationships among the authorities and other partners that enable water resource management. Key facilitating factors for W-CEAM in the GRW include established institutions, a mature conservation authority and an ecological focus to resource management strategies, while constraining factors include obfuscation of leadership roles and lack of multi-scalar approaches to watershed science. We conclude that it is useful to conceptualize W-CEAM as characterized by both a managerial and a scientific ethos – the former facilitating the latter – and that institutional goodwill, political will and institutional capacity for innovation and creativity are additional institutional core requisites to W-CEAM.     

The Quality of Domestic Legal Institutions and Export Performance

• Does the quality of domestic legal institutions matter for export performance? How does differential access to protections and privileges offered by informal institutions moderate the relationship between the quality of formal legal institutions and export performance? To answer these questions, we develop a theoretical framework drawing on insights from trade theory and institutional theory.
• We propose that higher-quality legal systems in an exporter’s location are associated with higher export performance, particularly when trade partners face higher levels of external and internal uncertainty. We further propose that firms that have less access to local informal institutions to reduce transaction costs and opportunism benefit more from better-developed legal institutions.
• Using information for more than 198,000 firms and legal quality information for 120 cities in China, we find strong support for our predictions. We discuss our contributions to the literature on institutions and export.

     

Does size still matter? How micro firms and SMEs vary in network learning

ABSTRACT

How can geographically constrained Micro firms and SMEs in emerging markets upgrade their products? How might firm size affect the benefits from accessing diverse knowledge and from participating in different learning relationships? Although access to diverse knowledge can be vital to innovation, smaller firms have a limited understanding about which new knowledge is most relevant to their context and how they may convert their capabilities into a more innovative organization. These latter aspects, we argue, come largely from relationships embedded in interfirm networks and certain types of non-market institutions that act as knowledge bridges and provide tutelage. Such institutions appear to benefit Micro firms in processing diverse knowledge. In contrast, product upgrading for SMEs improves more from their inter-firm networks, but these networks do not aid with managing diverse knowledge. We argue that differences in complementary capacities explain these variations. We use unique survey data from the Argentine wine industry.