To the people who are difficult to have a meal together with their families or close partners because of the time-zone difference or the life-rhythm difference, asynchronous video messaging is one way to achieve time-shifted communication. This paper studies the influence of adaptive video speed control in such a video message. We propose synchronization of the video with its user in that the d...

The n-2 repetition cost has been explained by persisting inhibition of a previously valid task set which dissipates over time. This account has two implications, namely that the switch cost decreases with the number of tasks involved in switching and that the cost should also be observed in switching between two tasks. Neither of these implications is supported by empirical evidence. An alterna...

This paper examines the use of switching costs by long-lived strategic buyers to manage dynamic competition between rival suppliers. The analysis reveals how buyers may employ switching costs to their advantage. We show when switching costs are high a buyer may induce suppliers to price more competitively by credibly threatening to replace the incumbent supplier with his rivals. The implication...

We investigate modeling strategies for English code-switched words as found in a Swahili spoken term detection system. Code switching, where speakers switch language in a conversation, occurs frequently in multilingual environments, and typically deteriorates STD performance. Analysis is performed in the context of the IARPA Babel program which focuses on rapid STD system development for under-...

Do switching costs reduce or intensify price competition in markets where firms charge the same price to old and new consumers? The answer is theoretically ambiguous because a firm prefers to charge a higher price to previous purchasers who are “locked-in” and a lower price to unattached consumers who offer higher future profitability. 800-number portability provides empirical evidence to deter...

This paper examines techniques that allow a well-trained source system built on one task to be rapidly adapted, or ported, to another target task. The two tasks considered in this paper are Hub5, or Switchboard, as the source system and VoiceMail as the target task. The two tasks are acoustically similar, both being telephonebandwidth speech tasks, but differ in speaking style. SwitchBoard is c...

In this paper we study how a reduction of consumer switching costs may affect market competition in the wireless telecommunication industry. The reduction of switching costs can be achieved through the implementation of a regulatory policy called Wireless Number Portability (WNP) that allows consumers to retain the same phone numbers when they switch service providers. By r educing consumers' s...