Abstract Using two basic assumptions of time series analysis, a test is proposed to assess the quality of seasonal adjustment of a series. The test is applied to several seasonally adjusted series of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) using three methods of seasonal adjustment: State Space Model Based Method (SSMB), TRAMO SEATS Method and X12ARIMA method. The empirical results are presented along w...

The consumption of bottled water has been increasing consistently over the last decade, even in countries where tap water quality is considered excellent. This paper discusses some of the reasons why people decide for an option that is often more expensive and less comfortable than tap water. Consumer surveys usually stress two main factors: dissatisfaction with tap water organoleptics (especia...

Semicontinuous variables have a proportion of responses at some fixed value and a continuous distribution among the remaining responses. Variables of this type occur in economic surveys of individuals or establishments (e.g. specific types of income or expenditures) where distributions are frequently characterized by a mixture of zeros and continuously distributed positive numbers. In this pape...

Low-cost Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags affixed to consumer items as smart labels are emerging as one of the most pervasive computing technology in history. This can have huge security implications. The present article surveys the most important technical security challenges of RFID systems. We first provide a brief summary of the most relevant standards related to this technology. ...

The dramatic increase of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs created intensive debates on its effects on patient and doctor behaviors. Combining 1994–2000 DTCA data with the 1995–2000 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys, we examine the effect of DTCA on doctor visits. Consistent with the proponents’ claim, we find that higher DTCA expenditures are associated with in...

Qualifying types represent a new approach to modifying the behaviour of instances of other types in a general way, in the form of components which can be designed and implemented without a prior knowledge of the types to be modified or their implementations. This paper illustrates the idea by showing how they can be used to program various standard synchronisation problems, including mutual exc...

Technological advances increasingly provide marketers with the opportunity to empower consumers. Consumer empowerment is a positive subjective state evoked by consumer perceptions of increasing control. As a positive state, increasing consumer empowerment should be associated with increasing consumer satisfaction. If such a relationship exists, it may be influenced by a number of contextual var...

This article shows how sentiment analysis (an artificial intelligence procedure that classifies opinions expressed within the text) can be used to design real-time satisfaction surveys. To improve participation, real-time surveys must be radically short. The shortest possible survey is a comment card. Patients' comments can be found online at sites organized for rating clinical care, within e-m...

Software agents help automate a variety of tasks including those involved in buying and selling products over the Internet. This paper surveys several of these agent-mediated electronic commerce systems by describing their roles in the context of a Consumer Buying Behavior (CBB) model. The CBB model we present augments traditional marketing models with concepts from Software Agents research to ...

An empirical assessment shows that Malaysia’s business cycle indicators can be improved. Turning point detection is not impressive, especially for troughs. Lead times are also variable. However, the relationship between the leading and coincident indicators over the entire cycle shows quite strong correlations from the late 1980s onwards, although lead times have shortened. Empirical evidence i...