The present study compared American and Japanese user practices on social networking sites (SNSs). Analysis focused on self-presentation such as posting party and drinking pictures on SNSs. A total of 1,079 college students (583 American and 496 Japanese) participated in the survey, which provided the basis for analysis. The results of the study demonstrate cultural and SNS platform differences...

Based on cellular automata (CA), the diffusion of communication products, namely the mobile phone (MP) and the landline telephone (LT), were modeled and simulated. The ordinary least squares (OLS) procedure and nonlinear regression method were carried out to estimate the diffusion parameters. The predicted results were compared with the actual data. It is found that: (1) the diffusion processes...

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT Telephone-based interfaces (TBIs) are an increasingly important method for interacting with computer systems. The telephone is a ubiquitous device and is many people’s primary method of entry into the information infrastructure. Access to an increasing number of services is being offered over the telephone (such as electronic banking and Web pages). The provision of these...

This paper attempts to measure the capacity of consumers to efficiently choose between alternative suppliers. Across two independent datasets from the UK electricity market we find that the subsets of consumers who claimed to be switching exclusively for price reasons appropriated only between 2639% of the maximum gains available through their choice of new supplier. While such behaviour can be...

The expressions for y2(t) and Y2(t) shown in Equations (11) and (12) are valid only if G2 is the latest generation available. Now suppose a generation 3 (G3) is introduced at τ3 (τ3 ≥ τ2). Similar to the shifting from G1 to G2 after τ2, some of the existing and potential adopters of G2 will consider adopting G3 after τ3. In order to derive the number of leapfrogging and switching adoptions betw...

Cycle switches are the simplest changes which can be used to alter latin squares, and as such have found many applications in the generation of latin squares. They also provide the simplest examples of latin interchanges or trades in latin square designs. In this paper we construct graphs in which the vertices are classes of latin squares. Edges arise from switching cycles to move from one clas...

Our study investigates the antecedents and performance implications of cooperative exchange norms. We argue that, in early relationships, the level of expected cooperative norms in an exchange is the result of a calculative process facilitated by transaction attributes: joint transaction-specific investments and observability. The greater the level of these two exchange attributes, the greater ...

Available online 5 November 2012

We study a modification of the so-called Parrondo’s paradox where a large number of individuals choose the game they want to play by voting. We show that it can be better for the players to vote randomly than to vote according to their own benefit in one turn. The former yields a winning tendency while the latter results in steady losses. An explanation of this behaviour is given by noting that...