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Zhao, Jinhua 1977. "Preference accommodating and preference shaping : incorporating traveler preferences into transportation planning." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54221.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-220).
This dissertation examines the psychological factors that influence travel behavior such as people's personality traits, environmental attitudes, car pride and perceptions of convenience and comfort. Despite the recognition of the importance of these psychological factors in better understanding travel behavior, transportation agencies have failed to integrate them into planning practice and policy debate in the quantitative way. This dissertation reflects on this failure, identifies the barriers that have contributed to it, and reviews innovations in travel behavior research which may help overcome these barriers. This dissertation proposes a structure for analyzing traveler preferences that incorporates these psychological factors into travel behavior analysis. A set of eight factors are presented as the latent elements of travel preferences to illustrate the structure, including two personality traits; three environmental attitude factors and car pride; and two perceptual factors of convenience and comfort. A MIMIC model quantifies the eight factors and examines the relationships among these factors as well as between them and socioeconomic variables. Despite the significant correlations with socioeconomic variables, personality, attitudes and perceptions prove to be characteristics of individuals that are distinct from the socioeconomics. The dissertation presents three applications that incorporate these latent factors into travel demand analysis of three critical aspects of travel behavior: car use, mode choice and car ownership. Incorporating the latent variables significantly improves the overall exploratory power of the transportation models.
(cont.) The results suggest that plausible changes in traveler preferences can have an effect on behavior in magnitude similar to the impacts that result from rising household income or increased population density. Unobserved heterogeneities exist not only for preferences with respect to observed variables such as travel time, but also for latent factors such as car pride and perception of convenience. Preference Accommodating and Preference Shaping in Transportation Planning 3 Mutual dependencies between travel preferences and behavior are identified and the direction and strength of the causal connections are modeled explicitly. Depending on the specific latent factors and aspect of travel behavior, the causal relationships could be from preferences to behavior, from behavior to preferences, or be significant in both directions concurrently These three applications also demonstrate in terms of methodology that 1) hierarchical relationships among latent factors can be simultaneously estimated with discrete choice models; 2) latent variable and latent class modeling techniques can be combined to test unobserved heterogeneities in travelers' sensitivity to latent variables; 3) causal relationships between behavior and preferences can be examined in the SEM or hybrid SEM and discrete choice model. This dissertation proposes two complementary perspectives to examine how to embed traveler preferences in the planning practice: planning as preference accommodating and planning as preference shaping.
(cont.) Combining both perspectives, this dissertation argues that by ignoring the importance of traveler preferences, not only may we make serious mistakes in the planning, modeling and appraisal processes, but we may also fail to recognize significant opportunities to mitigate or solve transportation problems by influencing and exploiting changes in people's preferences.
by Jinhua Zhao.
Ph.D.
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Vosper, Jane. "Using stated preference choice modelling to determine treatment preferences : investigating preferences for depression treatment." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.559707.
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Background & Aim The PhD aimed to quantify preferences for depression treatments using Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs). A secondary aim was to investigate the relationship between demographic variables, psychological variables and preferences. Methods & Analysis Two DCEs were designed and administered, investigating preferences for treatment of depression by: (1) a drug and (2) a physical activity intervention. The DCE designs were informed by focus groups and qualitative interviews. A best-worst scaling DCE was used for both studies. The physical activity intervention DCE was included in the baseline questionnaire of an RCT at the University of Bristol. Demographic information and psychological measures (including BDI scores) were analysed alongside the DCE. The drug treatment DCE was distributed as a postal questionnaire to a general population sample of 5000. Psychological measures of illness and medicine beliefs as well as the BDI were included in the questionnaire. Demographic data were also collected. Quantitative data were analysed primarily using conditional logistic regression. Results Results from the Physical activity DCE (for 152 patients) indicated that on average, patients particularly valued key aspects of the intervention, such as small goals, fitting activity into daily routine and having support over the intervention itself (being one giving choice of activity rather than exercise on prescription). Results from Drug study DCE (for 425 respondents) revealed a particular desire for no side-effects: large improvements in likely effectiveness are required to compensate respondents for non-zero risks of these. Heterogeneity analysis for both studies revealed effects of a number of demographic and psychological variables on preferences for attributes of depression treatment. Discussion Results of both studies are discussed in terms of their policy relevance and also from a methodological angle. The implications the results have on the use of DCEs in health care is considered.
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Rybáková, Nina. "Mezičasová volba osob romského etnika a většinové populace." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2010. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-75191.
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This thesis deals with the differences in time preferences, individual discount rates, among non-Romany (Czechs) and Romany ethnic group in the Czech Republic. Subjects of almost homogenous ethnic groups -- low income, low education, currently unemployed -- were subjected to experiments based on an in-depth questionnaire (Romany N = 35, N = 25 non-Romany). In addition to time preferences, their relationship with the socio-economic and demographic characteristics was inspected. The sub-tests showed a difference across ethnic groups in regard to the discounting models. Romany ethnic group is better characterized by an inconsistent model compared to the non-Romany using an more consistent model. Participants from both groups, however, appear to be very impatient, with discount rates closer to the values of individuals dependent on addictive substances. Probably because of insufficient sample size, no statistically significant correlation was found between the discount rates and socio-economic and demographic factors. Financial (il)literacy among Romany proved to be an important factor affecting the formation of savings. Finally, the recorded signal effect of expenditures on signal goods among the Romany ethnic group is briefly analyzed.
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Earthy, Philippa Jane. "Psychological context effects in preference and preference mapping." Thesis, University of Reading, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.363410.
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Kvapil, Mikuláš. "Preference šikmosti." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2013. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-198221.
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The diploma thesis is concerned with analysis of behavior of bettors on horse races. The aim is to test the hypothesis that bettors prefer skewness and they are risk averse. In the thesis is used the method of empirical data collection of horse racing in the Czech Republic and their subsequent testing using a regression model. The testing of the presented model did not confirm the hypothesis of skewness preference in the case of betting on horse races in the Czech Republic.
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Dave, Kaushali. "Preference elicitation and preference uncertainty : an application to noise valuation." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2011. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/2593/.
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The valuation of environmental impacts through Choice Experiments (CE) has been increasing applied in order to estimate the cost of environmental externalities. While this valuation technique offers several advantages over other methods, a crucial problem lies in representing the attributes in a manner that can be easily understood by the respondents. Another problem associated with this valuation technique is the assumption that respondents have known and consistent preferences. This thesis relaxes the restraint by allowing respondents to indicate their level of preference certainty. The effect of different attribute representation techniques especially in context of traffic noise is also examined in relation to the level of preference certainty, while the effect of preference elicitation methods on certainty levels is also scrutinised. Several CE surveys were conducted to evaluate the impact of traffic noise under a residential setting. In order to examine the effects of attribute representation method on the respondents, two different surveys were undertaken using the location and the linguistic representation techniques. This has been carried out in conjunction with three different methods of preference elicitation: the binary choice, one stage Likert and two stage Likert methods. Thus for each of the attribute representation methods, different preference elicitation techniques have been employed. The main purpose of the analyses has been to examine the variation in error structure and the need for error flexibility due to the different preference elicitation and representation techniques. The results reveal that these components of choice design significantly affect respondents’ decision making and subsequent valuation. Moreover, different methods of representation also influence the level and cause of preference uncertainty as well the decision process.
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Cai, Changqing. "Personal preference prediction." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ61879.pdf.
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Gustafsson, Johan E. "Preference and Choice." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Filosofi, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-34690.
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Jenson, Audra Christine. "Adaptive Preference Tradeoffs." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83433.
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Consider the following scenario: A mother chooses to marry off her 10 year-old daughter, not because she doesn’t know the harmful effects of child marriage, nor because she thinks that it is good that her daughter marries when she is 10 years old. Rather, she is unable to feed her daughter and realizes that her daughter’s survival depends upon her marrying a financially stable man. This is an apparent example of what human development practitioners and political philosophers call an adaptive preference (AP): a preference, formed under oppressive circumstances, that seems to perpetuate the agent’s own oppression. Prevailing opinion is that forced tradeoffs—especially following Serene Khader’s taxonomy—, like the case presented above, are a type of AP: one in which a person makes a decision because of a limited option set. In this paper I argue that no paradigm cases of forced tradeoffs should not be classified as APs. Instead, I offer a revised definition of adaptive preferences where I argue that adaptive preferences are psychological traits that cause the agent with adaptive preferences to make irrational or uninformed decisions that perpetuate their own oppression. I defend this new definition by exploring the implications of changing the definition. In particular, forced tradeoffs involve different kinds of interventions from other kinds of adaptive preferences and including forced tradeoffs risks committing testimonial injustice against those who have limited option sets.Master of Arts
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Chien, Yung-hsin. "Probabilistic preference modeling /." Digital version accessible at:, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
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Shay, Nathan Michael. "Investigating Real-Time Employer-Based Ridesharing Preferences Based on Stated Preference Survey Data." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1471587439.
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Skedgel, Chris D. "Estimating societal preferences for the allocation of healthcare resources using stated preference methods." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/6307/.
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Most governments in the world provide some publicly funded healthcare to their citizens, but given the scarcity of resources relative to potential demand, some form of rationing or priority setting is required, and some patients must be denied effective treatment. The thesis took the position that an explicit approach based on maximising the value that society derives from healthcare is the preferred way to address this rationing problem. Conventional health economic practice proposes that value should be equated with quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), leading to a policy of QALY maximisation, but, it is argued, not necessarily value maximisation. A more inclusive approach to defining value, based on societal preferences, may maximise overall well-being and be associated with greater trust and legitimacy in the priority setting process. The thesis identified patient and program characteristics that appeared to have empirical evidence of public support as well as a defensible ethical justification in determining the strength of a patient’s claim to societal healthcare resources. The relative strength of preferences for these characteristics, or the equity-efficiency trade-off, was estimated using stated preference methods. Two different methods, discrete choice experiments and constant-sum paired comparisons, were used and the response behaviours of the two elicitations were compared to identify a preferred method for eliciting societal preferences in the context of healthcare. Both methods found a statistically significant equity-efficiency trade-off in an age and sex representative sample of the Canadian public as well as a convenience sample of decision-making agents. This suggested that society would be willing to sacrifice some degree of efficiency in maximising individual life year gains in order to prioritise other characteristics consistent with the promotion of equity or distributive justice in the allocation of healthcare resources. However, differences between the results of the two elicitation methods suggested some systematic procedural variance.
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Bilén, David, and Jacob Österlund. "Samhälleliga tidspreferenser : En stated preference-studie med ansatsen att undersöka individers renatidspreferenser." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Nationalekonomi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-121486.
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Bakgrund: För att ge vägledning till hur samhället skall värdera nutida effekter gentemotframtida, exempelvis att rädda liv eller fördela samhälleliga investeringar, har ekonomergenomfört stated preference-studier med syfte att undersöka individers samhälleligatidspreferenser. Studiernas resultat har producerat en stor variation kring hur individervärderar framtida utfall jämfört med nutida. Resultaten har dock tolkats som att individer,även om tidspreferenserna varierar i storlek, värderar framtida utfall lägre än nutida. ShaneFrederick genomförde 1999 en studie, som Frederick benämnde som ett ”robusthetstest” avden dittills använda metodiken, där han i motsats till tidigare studier inte bara erbjödrespondenterna ett nutida utfall jämfört med ett framtida, utan även erbjöd respondenternaolika sekventiella fördelningar över tid. Resultaten kontrasterade tydligt tidigare studiersresultat, respondenterna föredrog exempelvis att rädda liv fördelat på tre generationer iställetför endast i deras egen – vilket indikerade att respondenterna hade negativa tidspreferenser!Inga uppföljningsstudier har därefter genomförts.Syfte: Att undersöka individers samhälleliga tidspreferenser när de erbjuds sekventiellafördelningar över tid.Metod: Två enkätundersökningar genomfördes vid Linköpings universitet. Respondenternaställdes inför olika sekventiella fördelningar för räddandet av liv och samhälleligaupprustningar, såväl i ett intra- som ett intergenerationsperspektiv.Slutsats: Vi finner ej stöd för att en majoritet av individerna värderar framtida samhälleligaupprustningar eller att rädda framtida liv, lägre än nutida. Vi finner heller ej stöd för attindividers tidspreferenser endast innefattar en preferens för den tidshorisontella absolutafördelningen (nutid gentemot framtid). I både ett intra- och ett intergenerationsperspektivföredrog den största andelen av respondenterna en jämn fördelning över tid. I ettintragenerationsperspektiv, där vi erbjöd individerna olika sekventiella fördelningar över tid,påverkades respondenternas val av den relativa fördelningen över tid. Alla resultatuppvisades för både räddandet av liv och samhälleliga upprustningar.Background: To give guidance for societal policy decisions on how to value future effectscompared to present, economists have used stated preference methodology to measureindividuals’ societal time preferences. The results have produced a great variety in the size ofindividuals’ time preferences, but have in general at least concluded that individuals valuefuture effects less then present. Shane Frederick performed in 1999 what he called a “test ofrobustness” of the methodology used in previous studies. Instead of just offering individualsto choose from an outcome today towards an outcome x years from now, he also offeredrespondents outcomes sequentially spread out across time. The results contradicted those ofprevious studies. For example 80% of the respondents preferred to save 300 lives across 3generations instead of 300 in their own – which implied negative time preferences! Nofurther follow up studies have been performed.Objective: Investigate individuals’ societal time preferences, when they are offeredsequential outcomes over time.Methodology: Two questionnaires where handed out at Linköpings university. Therespondents where offered different sequential outcomes over time for saving lives and whenpublic investments should occur, in as well an intra- as an intergenerational perspective.Conclusion: Our findings do not indicate that a majority of the individuals value savingfuture lives less then present lives, or that they value future public investments less thenfuture investments. Neither do they indicate that individuals’ societal time preferences onlyincorporate the absolute time horizontal aspect. In both an intra- and an intergenerationalperspective the largest fraction of the individuals preferred an equal distribution over time. Inan intragenerational perspective, where we offered individuals different sequentialdistributions, the individuals choice where affected by the relative distribution over time. Allfindings where present both for saving lives and public investments.
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Bruce, Julie-Anne Marie. "The Relation Between Preference and Demand in the Domestic Hen: Does Preference Vary With Price?" The University of Waikato, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10289/2376.
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ABSTRACT Six hens responded under an increasing Fixed Ratio schedule of reinforcement to assess demand separately for two different food types: wheat and puffed wheat. Demand curves generated showed the least preferred food, puffed wheat, yielded a higher initial (ln L) demand than the more preferred food, wheat. While responding for the more preferred food, wheat, produced lower initial (ln L) demand functions, responding for wheat was maintained to higher increasing FR schedules of reinforcement than was that for puffed wheat. This phenomenon occurred across all six hens. To assess preference between the two food types the hens responded under a two-link concurrent-chain schedule of reinforcement. Under the concurrent-chain schedule of reinforcement there were three conditions, each consisted of a initial link with VI 90-s VI 90-s in effect, and terminal links of FR1, FR8 and FR32. The concurrent-chain schedule was used to examine if or how preference may relate to demand. Preference measures obtained showed wheat was generally preferred to puffed wheat across all prices throughout the preference assessment. As price increased in the terminal link during the preference assessment, preference for wheat became more extreme as did the hens responding. The results suggest that while there is a systematic relation between preference and demand, in that at higher FR values food with higher demand levels is preferred. This does not seem to hold, however, at FR1
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Freeman, Shannon. "Developing preferences for low-preference age-appropriate leisure activities in adults with developmental disabilities /." Available to subscribers only, 2005. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1079659771&sid=19&Fmt=2&clientId=1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Huong, Lan Hoang Thi. "A study on housing preference of young households using stated-preference approach." Thesis, KTH, Fastigheter och byggande, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-50036.
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The isssue of housing preference has been widely researched in housing literature, because it provides valuable information for the planning and development of housing for various residential groups with different needs. In Vietnam, the issue has not received proper attention from scholars and developers though the local housing market is going through a phase of rapid development and transformation. This thesis examines housing preference of young household in the capital city Hanoi with focus on condominiums in new urban areas, due to strong demand of the residential group for the specific type of housing. The thesis employed a stated-preference approach with application of direct measurement and conjoint analysis methods to answer research question. A total of 92 responses were collected by mean of questionnaires delivered to customers who visited two real-estate agents in Hanoi. Analysis of the empirical data shows that, households are most concerned about developers’ commitments and basic quality of the housing units.They appreciate child-friendly qualities of the living environment, as well as child-friendly facilities and services. The analysis also reveals that price is the most influential attribute to households’ preference, followed by location and floor area. Of the households, majority prefer living close to city centers in order to have good access to jobs, schools, health-care and recreational services; while a small portion choose to live further from city center to get better living conditions, larger space, and lower price. The preferences are then discussed in connection to current conditions of Hanoi urban areas in order to give implications for urban planning policies and new housing projects.
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Chu, C. C., T. J. Hennberry, and A. C. Cohen. "Host Preference of Silverleaf Whitefly and Factors Associated with Feeding Site Preference." College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/210321.
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Silverleaf whitefly (SLW), Bemisia argentifolii, Bellows and Perring, preferred cantaloupe to cotton, broccoli and lettuce in field and greenhouse studies. In the absence of cantaloupe, SLW preferred cotton to broccoli and lettuce. In the field, more eggs and fewer nymphs were found on broccoli than on cotton. Differences in the relative abundance of vascular bundles per unit of leaf area between the four plant species may partly account for differences in oviposition site selection. Vascular bundle volume/unit of leaf tissue volume was 50% greater in cantaloupe than in cotton and broccoli, which in turn were significantly greater than in lettuce. Most SLW on cotton leaves are found on underside leaf surfaces. Distances from top and underside leaf surfaces to the nearest vascular bundles in cotton leaves were 131 and 60 tun, respectively, in the present studies.
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Schäfer, Thomas. "Determinants of Music Preference." Doctoral thesis, Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz, 2009. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-200900277.
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Musik begleitet uns seit vielen Jahrtausenden und ist ein Teil der menschlichen Entwicklungsgeschichte. Mehr über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung von Musik zu wissen bedeutet mehr über uns selbst zu wissen. Die meisten Menschen mögen Musik und für viele ist es eine der wichtigsten Freizeitbeschäftigungen in ihrem Leben. Doch unterschiedliche Menschen mögen unterschiedliche Musik, und die Bindung an Musik kann stark oder schwach sein. Dieses als Musikpräferenz bezeichnete Phänomen hat in der Vergangenheit zahlreiche Studien innerhalb der Musikpsychologie angeregt, die eine Fülle von Variablen untersucht haben, welche das Zustandekommen unterschiedlicher musikalischer Vorlieben erklären helfen. Diese Forschungsergebnisse sind jedoch bis heute lückenhaft und konnten bisher nicht in ein allgemeines Modell über die Entstehung von Musikpräferenz integriert werden. Die bereits existierenden Vorschläge für solch ein Modell beschränken sich auf konkrete Gefallensurteile für ein gegebenes Musikstück. Sie erklären jedoch nicht, warum sich Menschen überhaupt entschließen Musik zu hören und nach welchen Kriterien sie diese Musik aussuchen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Untersuchung derjenigen Faktoren, welche die Motivation Musik zu hören und den Auswahlprozess von Musik aus verschiedenen musikalischen Stilen (Genres, Musikrichtungen) erklären können. Als entscheidend werden dabei die Funktionen von Musik erachtet, die in den bisherigen Modellen fast vollständig vernachlässigt wurden. Die Funktionalität – also der Nutzen – von Musik kann darüber Auskunft geben, welche (evolutionären) Vorteile sie für den Menschen hatte und wie sich diese Vorteile bis heute nutzen lassen um bestimmte Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen. Damit kann nicht nur die Frage beantwortet werden, warum jemand Musik hören möchte, sondern auch die Frage, warum jemand einen bestimmten Musikstil bevorzugt – denn Musik verschiedener Stilrichtungen kann für eine Person mit ganz unterschiedlichen Funktionen assoziiert sein. Wie die einzelnen Funktionen von Musik mit Musikpräferenz in Zusammenhang stehen und welche Funktionen eine entscheidende Rolle für die Entwicklung von Musikpräferenz spielen, ist das zentrale Thema dieser. In einem ersten Schritt wurde versucht die Liste der Faktoren, welche Musikpräferenz kausal beeinflussen, zu vervollständigen: Bisher ist bekannt, dass Musikpräferenz mit kognitiven, emotionalen, physiologischen, sozialen, entwicklungsbezogenen und persönlichkeitsbezogenen Variablen zusammenhängt. Von den physiologischen Variablen weiß man jedoch noch nicht, ob sie stets nur ein Effekt des Musikhörens sind oder ob sie auch ursächlich auf Musikpräferenz wirken können. In zwei Studien wurde gezeigt, dass das Hören von Lieblingsmusik mit erhöhter Erregung einhergeht und dass erhöhte Erregung umgekehrt Musikpräferenz verstärken kann. In zwei weiteren Studien über die Funktionen von Lieblingsmusik zeigte sich, dass Musik vor allem zur Stimmungs‐ und Erregungsmodulation eingesetzt werden kann. Es zeigte sich aber auch, dass diese am höchsten bewerteten Funktionen nicht gleichzeitig diejenigen sind, die für eine starke Präferenz für die eigene Lieblingsmusik verantwortlich sind. Stattdessen spielen für eine starke Präferenz eher soziale und kommunikative Funktionen eine große Rolle (z.B. die Möglichkeit mit Musik die eigene Identität auszudrücken). Die beiden abschließenden Studien zeigten, dass für Musikpräferenz generell – also über verschiedene Musikstile hinweg – kognitive Funktionen (wie Kommunikation oder Selbstreflexion) sowie physiologische Erregung die größte Rolle spielen, während emotionale Faktoren und die Bekanntheit der Musik keinen besonders großen Einfluss haben. Am Ende der Arbeit wird für eine Integration der gefundenen Ergebnisse in die bereits bestehenden Modelle über die Entwicklung von Musikpräferenz argumentiert, mit dem Ziel dieses Phänomen umfassend zu verstehen und die Befunde für eine erfolgreiche Anwendung in Bildung oder Therapie nutzen zu könnenMore than 2500 years ago, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras explored the sound of swinging chords and made an intriguing discovery: the simultaneous tones of chords that are divided in their length in integer ratios produced a sound which people perceive as harmonic. Pythagoras was able to describe a subjective phenomenon of the human mind by means of simple mathematical ratios. With this principle he formulated the program of natural science, and it is still the way how scientists try to explain the human mind in terms of mathematical principles and laws. In fact, one of the youngest disciplines in modern sciences – the psychology of music – is tied to the ancient findings of Pythagoras and investigates human perception, cognition, emotion, and behavior related to music. There are three ways how people relate to music. They can create music as a composer, they can perform music by means of their voice or an instrument, and they can listen to music. Although all three aspects are interesting, the work in hand will concentrate on music listening because it is the most ubiquitous activity which concerns every single individual. Music psychology is related to music listening in several respects which will accompany the whole work: Why do we listen to music at all? What kind of music do we listen to and why? How strong is our relation to specific music and why? These fundamental questions guided the present research and root in evolutionary considerations about music listening and end up at the concrete use of music in people’s everyday life. The central issue which is surrounded by these questions is referred to as music preference. ‘Which music do you like?’ has become one of the most often used questions in psychological research, for two reasons: First, since every person (at least in the western world) is in contact with music everyday and most people see music as one of the most important things in their daily life, the study of music listening provides an authentic and fruitful avenue to their experiences and behavior in a variety of situations and contexts. Second, because music has been recognized as a tool for expressing and inducing moods and emotions and also as a means to convey information in social environments, music is by now often used as an essential implement in personality, emotion, and social psychology research. Thus, research on music preference is going on to provide us with deep insights into many psychological questions. The dissertation addresses the investigation of music preference in a series of experimental studies. Chapter 1 provides an introduction in theory and research about music preference and points at open questions which appear in both content and methodology of the current research. Chapters 2 to 4 present three empirical papers which addressed these open questions in a total of six studies. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings of these studies and provides some preliminary suggestions about a comprehensive model of music preference
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Farajov, Murad. "Contingent Budget Preference Experiment." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Örebro universitet, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-15965.
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An economic literature concerns instruments to improve the preference elicitation methods for the reform-based governmental programs. We construct an instrument for the budget allocation method using a Cobb-Douglas functional form. We apply the instrument to the survey data which is collected for Swedish Recreational Fishing Industry to elicit the preferences for governmental management actions. We analyze the elasticity or weights in the instrument by the binary logit and censored regression models and by comparing the significant estimates by the gross and net effects we get results which increase credence to the instrument we apply.I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Thomas Laitila, whose guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop the thesis.More, I offer my regards to Anders Lunander who supported me in any respect during the completion of the thesis.
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Jeon, Joo Young. "Essays on social preference." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2014. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/53364/.
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This thesis consists of six essays related to experimental investigation of social preference. We investigate the effects of a pure income effect on social preference in the first essay. In the second essay we explore the effects of gender in altruism and the corresponding anticipation behavior. The third essay discusses the effects of different type of rebate schemes on altruistic behavior. We study the effects of a real and a minimal identity on initiation and escalation of conflict in the fourth essay. The fifth essay investigates the effects of social cues in (anti) social behavior. The final essay tests the effects of pure framing on altruistic behavior.
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Petrmichlová, Lucie. "Pracovní hodnotové preference studentů." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2010. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-75767.
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The thesis deals with value preferences of students regarding their future employment. It focuses on job values, achievement motivation and motivation to work, as well as self -- esteem and financial crisis and its impacts on the Czech Republic. The thesis also includes the results of an empirical research, which I made among students of University of Economics in Prague. The research is focused on job values of students and their personality characteristics (achievement motivation and self -- esteem) that influence the formation of job values. The research also reflects the students' opinions on financial crises and its impact on their future job and career.
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Rojová, Michaela. "Preference studentů v cestovním ruchu - marketingová analýza." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2014. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-201101.
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This diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of consumer behaviour and preferences of university students concerning tourism. The aim of the thesis is to prepare set of recommendations of marketing mix tools setting which should help tourism service providers to market effectively to students. The theoretical part deals with the explanation of basic terms that are used in the thesis. Furthermore, it provides the analysis of existing data and description of student consumer behaviour and trends in youth tourism. The practical part focuses on the research itself conducted by interviewing students at the universities all over the Czech Republic. The outcome are the recommendations and tipps which are based on the research analysis how to prepare effective marketing strategy and how to set individual tools of marketing mix in order to attract youth travellers.
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ALBANO, ALESSANDRO. "Distance-based and ranking methods for preference rankings, preference-approvals and textual analysis." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Palermo, 2022. https://hdl.handle.net/10447/575128.
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Vile, Matthew. "Gun Control Policy Preference in Context: A Contextually Sensitive Model of Gun Control Policy Preferences." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2006. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/332.
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Using data from the 2000 American National Election Study and the Uniform Crime Reports, this research studies the impact of core values and contextual effects on gun control policy preferences. The research seeks to produce a contextually sensitive model of gun control policy preferences that accounts for the nature of the elite message war regarding the issue of gun control and for both long and short-term contextual factors that might sway individual opinions at the point of stimulus (e.g., the survey question). While the analysis does find conditioning effects, the effects do not conform to the theoretical expectations, and they are generally weaker than expected. In contrast, the research demonstrates the strong connections that formed in the public’s mind between ideological, partisan and gender-based core values and gun control policy preferences. These results are consistent with research that found the effects of political messages often vary in counterintuitive ways due to variance in the strength of the message and political awareness (Zaller 1992). Replicating this research across various time periods permits the investigation of the decay rate of impacts on individual policy preferences created by substantial, one-time contextual effects. It may be that contextual effects have a substantial impact in the short-term, but these short-term impacts are mitigated over the longterm by continual reinforcement of the basic themes employed by elites in the message war surrounding the issue.
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Trávníčková, Iveta. "Preference lidí k bydlení - příklad satelitních obcí." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2013. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-197455.
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This thesis examines people's preferences for housing, specifically for housing in suburbs. Suburbs have negative economic, environmental and social consequences and most cities in developed countries is facing the growth of suburbs. The aim of the thesis was to examine the reasons why people move to satellite villages and how they change their preferences. People's preferences were tested by questionnaire survey conducted in Jesenice u Prahy. Residents are moving to this locality because they want to live in a house with a garden, in a quiet and clean environment. The opinion that people are moving to suburbs due to social status and prestige was not confirmed.
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Tombs, Selina. "An evolutionary assessment of the relationship between female partner preference and pupil size preference." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0031/MQ27383.pdf.
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Wingfield, David. "Terminal digit preference and number preference in blood pressure readings and their clinical significance." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.403608.
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Carr, Corine M. "Assessing teaching style preference and factors that influence teaching style preference of registered dietitians." Virtual Press, 1998. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1117123.
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Adult patient education is a major responsibility of registered dietitians. It is essential for registered dietitians to be effective adult educators as they teach adults in various employment settings. Review of the literature revealed that one important factor in being an effective adult educator is developing a teaching style which facilitates learning, known as learner-centered teaching style.The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify the teaching style preference and identify factors that have influenced registered dietitians' teaching style preference.The study sample of six hundred registered dietitians residing in the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin) were sent two tools to complete, the "Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS)". Two hundred and fifty-two respondents completed the questionnaire and PALS, designed by Conti to determine teaching style preference.The overall PALS scores were computer generated. Frequency distributions and populations percentages were calculated for demographic and descriptive data. The mean, median, and standard deviation of PALS scores were calculated. Analysis of various factors and the PALS scores.The findings suggest that registered dietitians' teaching style preference is teacher-centered. The years of employment positively affected teaching style toward learnercentered until the dietitian had been employed more than 16 years, then the years of employment negatively affected teaching style preference. The number of formal educational sessions relating to adult education had the most positive effect on teaching style preference. The number of continuing education session related to adult education proved to be the factor that most affected teaching style preferences.The study has implications for registered dietitians regarding dietetic education and curriculum development, continuing professional education and adult educators utilizing the PALS instrument. Further study is recommended using PALS with only entry-level dietitians and comparing PALS scores with actual classroom teaching behavior.Department of Educational Leadership
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Loukus, Amy Katherine. "AN INVESTIGATION OF VARIABLES CONTRIBUTING TO DISORDERED GAMBLING AND SLOT MACHINE PLAY." OpenSIUC, 2017. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/1371.
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Problem gambling is a growing social concern that results in debt, lost jobs, broken families, and at times, suicide. Slot machines are the most popular and most addictive form of gambling, generating nearly 70% of annual profits for the commercial casino industry in North America. Behavioral researchers have identified variables that establish and maintain problem gambling on slot machines, and the data reveal characteristics that influence preference for specific games, and subsequently, time spent engaged with specific machines. A degree of variability has been reported in the outcomes observed across participants and studies; such variability may be influenced by generic features of the games used by researchers utilizing a “one machine suits all” approach to slot research, i.e., within most studies a single machine is used for all participants rather than chosen according to participant preference for the machine or features therein. The following set of studies aimed to investigate variables related to slot machine selection, gambler preference for structural characteristics, and the reinforcing effectiveness of the machine on gambling behavior. The first of three experiments evaluated participant preference for functional and structural characteristics of popular three-, four- and five-reel electronic Vegas-style slot machines according to (a) a Likert rating scale of attitudes toward the machines, (b) forced ranking of most-preferred machines, and (c) a paired-stimulus preference assessment. Experiment II utilized a series of multiple schedules randomized across participants to examine differences in the rate of play when participants gambled on their most- and least-preferred machines. In Experiment III, the reinforcing effectiveness of the machines was evaluated. Participants engaged in an arbitrary task to gain access to their highest- and least-preferred machines as indicated in Experiment I. Response effort during the work task was evaluated under a progressive ratio schedule of reinforcement to determine the degree to which the individual would work to gain access to the machine. Participant break points were compared across the two conditions. Results of Experiment I yielded significant differences in the degree to which participants rated the machines: three-reel machines and those displaying a win were rated significantly higher in the attitude assessment when compared to four- or five-reel machines, and when compared to those with a loss, respectively. During the forced ranking procedure, participants again selected three-reel machines significantly more frequently in their “top five” favorite machines than four- or five-reel options. Last, when subjected to the paired stimulus preference assessment, participants selected three-reel machines on a significantly higher percentage of trials than five-reel alternatives. Results of Experiment II demonstrated that rate of play on high-preference machines is on average, faster than rate of play on lower-preference machines, and results from Experiment III yielded on average, higher break points in participant responding when offered the opportunity to gamble on high-preference slot machines following a response requirement than when offered a low-preference option; however, the average rate of response on the work task that led to machine access was lower during high-preference conditions than low-preference conditions. Implications of these findings for the gambling literature and for the effective prevention and treatment of disordered slot machine gambling are discussed.
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Aydinli, Aykut. "Interface Design: Personal Preference Analysis." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12610035/index.pdf.
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This thesis analyzes the relationship between users&rsquocharacteristics and users&rsquo
interface preferences. An online survey is developed for this study. This survey composed of two types of questions: (1) users&rsquo
personal information such as age, gender, country, cognitive structure, and also computer experience and (2) user interface elements. More than 2,500 participants from 120 different countries throughout the world completed our survey. Results were analyzed using cross tables. Our findings show that there is a relationship between users&rsquo
characteristics and users&rsquo
interface preferences. In the presence of this relationship, an artificial neural network model is developed for the estimation of the interface preferences based on the user characteristics.
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Wapper, Toni. "Factors associated with musical preference /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1991. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARPS/09arpsw252.pdf.
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Rodriguez, Maria. "TIME ESTIMATION AND HAND PREFERENCE." Doctoral diss., University of Central Florida, 2005. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3895.
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This work examines the effect of participants' gender and handedness on the perception of short intervals of time. The time estimation task consisted of an empty production procedure with forty trials at each of four intervals of one, three, seven, and twenty seconds. The four target intervals represent a natural logarithmic progression and a series that bracket important temporal thresholds. The order of presentation of those intervals was randomized across participants but yoked across the sexes in each of the respective dominant hand groups. The two between-subject factors, with two levels each, were sex and handedness. Participants produced forty estimates at each of the required intervals, which was the first within-subject factor, estimated interval being the other. T-tests were conducted on the dependent measures, the time estimates in terms of their variability and their central tendency with respect to the target duration. If handedness plays a significant role in timing, this may indicate differences between hemispheric functioning as a possible causal mechanism. If there is cerebral asymmetry in time perception, namely if one hemisphere is more competent regarding time perception, accuracy in judging duration should be higher for the contralateral hand. The results of the present study indicated that there are no significant differences in performance between right-handed and left-handed participants, or between male and female participants, in the estimation of short intervals of time.Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Arts and Sciences
Psychology
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Hurling, Robert. "Consumer perception, preference and purchase." Thesis, University of Surrey, 2001. http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/784/.
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Ellis, Jas. "Culture, fertility, and son preference." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2009. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2537/.
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My thesis comprises three papers on individuals' preferences over family composition and the degree to which these are culturally determined, or learnt. Prices, Norms and Preferences: The Influence of Cultural Values on Fertility This paper investigates the influence of cultural values on fertility. High country of origin fertility is associated with high fertility in the UK, in line with previous results. This is consistent with fertility preferences being a transmissible (learnable) cultural value. However, I find that high fertility in the country of origin is also associated with earlier childbearing. If timing is not accounted for, this phenomenon could lead to an upward bias when estimating the importance of cultural values. Son Preference and Culture I measure the sex preferences of immigrant women in the United Kingdom by estimating the effect of family composition on birth hazard rates. International comparisons of son preference are constructed, the first known to the author. A theoretical model suggests that costs (e.g., dowries) are unlikely to explain the variation in outcomes between groups. Finally, women arriving in the UK at a young age appear to have less distinct tastes, also consistent with a primarily cultural, rather than economic, explanation for parental sex preferences. Son Preference and Sex Ratios: How many 'Missing Women' are Missing. When parents prefer sons, heterogeneity in the probability of having sons can lead to excess girls. I argue that this may lead to under-counting the number of 'missing women'. Parents show significant differences in son preference between countries. I exploit these differences to simulate sex ratios in the presence of measured heterogeneity. Parents' son preferences account for 1.5% of differences between sex ratios worldwide (significant at 10%). The presence of this effect may imply that sex ratios are more biased than previously estimated, since previous comparisons use benchmarks that already contain too few girls. Therefore there may be more women missing due to discrimination than we thought.
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Bibow, Jörg. "Essays on liquidity preference theory." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.388765.
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Lazaridos, Georgios. "The inclination for a preference." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen Konsthögskolan, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-187417.
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In this essay I have playfully ventured to rediscover what I might know about art,what has been formed and blended all this time inside my mind, by the sources,influences, readings, references I have come across. Partially to answer to myselfwhere is my trajectory, where is it headed, and in that tracing hopefully, I willprovide a short reading here about what I think is art, and how I approach it.So, one can start from a simple question, at which one does not care to concludewith an answer: "why do we mark/trace a surface? Or for that matter, sculpt, think,animate etc." What is the inclination behind it? And more importantly, why do wecling to a specific preference?” My work consists of two parts: of the one which is here, and of everything whichI have not written. And precisely this second part is the important one.”-Wittgenstein
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Tipoe, Eileen Liong. "Revealed preference and welfare analysis." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:54568d73-df3b-454d-a002-519af53f4e34.
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This thesis uses nonparametric revealed preference methods to derive new tests for consistency with models of consumer behaviour, and discuss the implications for welfare analysis. Chapter 1 demonstrates how to conduct revealed preference analysis when prices, and hence budget constraints, are only partially observed. This chapter extends the revealed preference results of Crawford and Polisson (2015), derived for the static case, to dynamic settings, allowing for storability of goods. Necessary and sufficient conditions for consistency with intertemporal models are derived, which do not require the researcher to distinguish between corner solutions and unavailability of the good, or to impute prices. Chapter 2 discusses the validity of using reported happiness measures as proxies of utility or social welfare, by testing for consistency between revealed and reported preference orderings in Japanese household survey data. Although the expenditure behaviour of most households is consistent with standard models of utility maximisation, it is generally inconsistent with the preference ordering given by their reported happiness. This inconsistency is likely due to reporting error in the happiness measure, and suggests that happiness and utility are empirically distinct and noninterchangeable. Chapter 3 investigates the effect of price inattention on inflation misperceptions and cost-of-living indices, by developing a behavioural model in which consumers only notice price changes above a certain threshold. A data application, using supermarket scanner data, demonstrates that this model generates plausible results; in particular, consumers have more accurate perceptions of inflation during periods of high or volatile inflation, but may substantially misperceive inflation when it is low. These results have important implications for conducting welfare analysis when consumers are not fully attentive to price changes.
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Patterson, Scott Joseph. "Personality and television program preference." Scholarly Commons, 1988. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2156.
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The first step in this process is to define what is implied by the term "Uses and Gratifications" and to elaborate on current perspectives of the uses and gratifications paradigm in order to understand the need for the present research. As the second step in this process. a discussion of the variable of audience personality will be explored in order to describe why some of the people exhibit different preferences for different television program content. The end result of this discussion on personality and program preference will be a contribution to the body or heuristic knowledge surrounding the reasons for specific television behaviors by the audience.
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Dotson, Marc Robinson. "Explaining Preference in Choice Modeling." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1465921720.
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Dellatolas, Georges. "Epidemiologie de la preference manuelle." Paris 6, 1992. http://www.theses.fr/1992PA066117.
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La preference manuelle chez l'homme (etre droitier ou gaucher) apparait resulter a la fois de facteurs biologiques, prenataux, responsables de la specialisation hemispherique cerebrale et de facteurs post-nataux, environnementaux ou lies a l'activite du sujet. La survenue precoce d'une pathologie cerebrale qui n'apparait pas liee aux determinants normaux de la preference manuelle peut provoquer l'apparition d'une preference manuelle gauche (et exceptionnellement droite) pathologique. La plupart des associations entre preference manuelle gauche et pathologies diverses signalees actuellement dans la litterature, soit ne concerne qu'une petite minorite de gauchers, soit resulte de problemes methodologiques, en particulier d'une definition fluctuante de la preference manuelle gauche et d'une exclusion du role des facteurs post-nataux
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Perrin, Frances A. "Progressive Response Effort Preference Assessments." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2009. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/34629.
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Educational PsychologyPh.D.
The identification of preferred and reinforcing stimuli has long been a focus of behavior analysts in applied settings. Research has primarily focused on different methodologies for assessing whether stimuli are preferred and there has been additional research on identifying under what conditions those stimuli will function as reinforcers. Recently, research has begun to examine responses and reinforcers from a behavioral economic perspective. The present study compared responding in a situation where the price of one item was increased, but the price of alternative items remained the same, to a situation where the price of all available items increased. Multiple stimulus with replacement (MS) preference assessment methodology was used and price was altered by increasing the distance of the stimuli from the participant. During the first assessment, the item chosen most frequently in the first session was systematically moved 6 - 24 inches beyond the other items during subsequent sessions. During the second assessment, all items were systematically moved 6 - 24 inches beyond the starting point in front of the participant during subsequent sessions. Results for the first assessment indicated that for four of the five participants, consumption of the target item decreased as a function of increased price for that item. Results for the second assessment indicated that at high costs, clear preference for one item was observed for three of the five participants. Taken collectively, these results suggest that response effort is a variable that should be taken into consideration when evaluating effective treatments for individuals with disabilities. Preference and reinforcer effectiveness may shift as individuals are presented with tasks that require increased response effort in terms of reaching or moving about their environment.
Temple University--Theses
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Hořínková, Adéla. "Preference médií v různých kulturách." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2014. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-193482.
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This thesis deals with relationships of culture and media which are used by people of definite culture. In the research there is the most widespread media of present. It includes newspaper, radio, television and internet. The culture is assessed from the viewpoint of Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory. In this theory there are five dimensions which are Power distance, Individualism, Uncertainty avoidance, Masculinity, and Long Term Orientation. The methods, which were used for results, were chi-square and Pearson's adjusted residuals. The researched dates of quanti-tative research originate in Mindreader project of the company Mindshare which was taking place in year 2012.
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Wang, Rui. "Preference-inspired co-evolutionary algorithms." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4920/.
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The simultaneous optimisation of many objectives (say, in excess of 3), in order to obtain a full and satisfactory set of trade-off solutions to support a posteriori decision-making, remains challenging. To solve many-objective optimisation problems (MaOPs), a novel class of algorithms, namely, preference-inspired co-evolutionary algorithms (PICEAs) is proposed based on a concept of co-evolving the common population of candidate solutions with a family of decision-maker preferences. Two realisations of PICEAs, i.e., PICEA-g and PICEA-w, are studied. PICEA-g co-evolves goal vectors with candidate solutions. The algorithm is demonstrated to perform better than or competitively with four of the best-in-class MOEAs on MaOP benchmark problems. PICEA-w co-evolves weight vectors with candidate solutions. PICEA-w performs better than or competitively with other leading decomposition based algorithms on MaOPs benchmark problems. Moreover, PICEA-w eliminates the need to specify appropriate weights in advance of performing the optimisation, which leads the algorithm to be less sensitive to the problem geometries. As performance of MOEAs is often affected by the associated parameter configurations, parameter sensitivities of both the PICEAs are empirically studied, and some suggestions on the settings of parameters are provided. This research also proposes a novel and unified approach, namely, interactive PICEA-g (iPICEA-g) for a priori or progressive multi-objective optimisation and decision-making. This approach is derived from PICEA-g by co-evolving goal vectors that are exclusively generated in regions of interest to a decision-maker. iPICEA-g, to the best of the author's knowledge, is the first approach that is simultaneously able to handle multiple preferences types such as aspirations, weights or even via visually brushing, and that is also able to support multiple regions of interest. The iPICEA-g is demonstrated to be effective on different benchmark problems as well as a real-world problem --aircraft control system design problem.
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Zhang, Yiwen. "Channel Preference of Knowledge Sourcing." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195296.
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Knowledge is the critical success factor for organizations to compete in the contemporary business world. Organizations that can make full use of their collective expertise and knowledge are likely to be more innovative, efficient and effective in the marketplace. With the development of advanced information and communication technology, organizations are undertaking various knowledge management initiatives to augment traditional ways of knowledge transfer. This dissertation intended to understand how various factors influence knowledge workers' knowledge sourcing behavior in the multimodal knowledge network. More specifically, our research question is: How do task characteristics, knowledge characteristics and individual characteristics influence knowledge workers' channel preferences during their knowledge sourcing activities?We built a knowledge sourcing preference model which predicts knowledge workers' preferences among various knowledge channels. We identified eight important antecedents from a wide spectrum of task characteristics, knowledge characteristics, and individual characteristics. We also identified three representative knowledge sourcing channels: face-to-face communication with colleagues, knowledge repositories, and discussion forums. We developed eight hypotheses on how each of the antecedent influence channel preferences.We tested our hypotheses through a survey we conducted in an international information technology company. Out of the eight hypotheses, the hypotheses on the influences from knowledge codifiability, knowledge volatility, extroversion/introversion dimension of the personality, and reciprocation wariness are supported. The hypotheses on the influences from task interdependency and task urgency are partially supported. The hypotheses on the influences from task routineness and expertise are not supported.This study furthers our understanding of knowledge workers' knowledge sourcing behavior in a multimodal knowledge network. The results of this study help organizations understand the advantages and disadvantages of various sourcing channels under certain circumstance of tasks, knowledge, and individuals. With this understanding, organizations will be able to have reasonable expectations on the utilization of knowledge transfer approaches, and to improve the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer initiatives. This will enable the organizations to cultivate environments or design systems to develop the types of channels to accommodate the preferences of knowledge workers with various combinations of tasks, knowledge and individual characteristics.
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Chu, C. C., E. T. Natwick, T. J. Henneberry, A. C. Cohen, and S. J. Castle. "Silverleaf Whitefly Cotton Cultivator Preference." College of Agriculture, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/210364.
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All of nine cotton cultivars tested were susceptible to silverleaf whitey, Bemisia argentifolii Bellows and Perring in Imperial valley, CA in 1995 and 1996. Using 4.1 adults per leaf turn as an insecticide- treatment action threshold, Deltapine (DPL) 5409 and 5415 required 5.5 applications of insecticide, DPL 50, 5461, and 5517 required 6 applications, DPL 5432 and 5690 required 65 applications, Louisiana (LA) 887 required 7 application, and Stoneville (ST) 474 required 7.5 applications. Results indicate the potential to reduce insecticide application by selecting appropriate cultivars that are commercially available.
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Sherman, Misty. "Exercise preference and social identity." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1991. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/748.
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Turner, Julia P. "University preference : A conjoint analysis." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1999. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1245.
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The business of tertiary education has become more and more competitive in recent years due to reductions in government funding and higher study fees. As the nature of the environment grows more competitive the role of marketing, previously non-existent in most universities, has grown significantly. One of the key pieces of information that would assist the marketing effort of any university is an understanding of what determines university preference. This study examines university preference in Western Australia. A form of conjoint analysis, known as Adaptive Conjoint Analysis (ACA), was used to investigate the relative importance of a number of attributes to university preference. The study involved presenting 259 Western Australian school leavers (Year 12 students) with a combination of paper and disk based questionnaires. Results indicated that the four most important determinants of university preference for Western Australian school leavers were course suitability, academic reputation, job prospects and teaching quality. The results are compared to previous research findings and their implications for the marketing of universities are discussed.
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PERUCCA, GIOVANNI. "RELIABILITY OF STATED PREFERENCE METHODS." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2434/153780.
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Many times governments and policy makers have to choose among different projects or policies to implement. In principle, the best choice is the one which maximizes the social welfare that, in turn, depends on individual preferences. But very often preferences are unknown and even not observable.
In practice, a common procedure is to directly ask a sample of individuals about their preferences, which are therefore stated by agents rather than revealed by their behaviour. Methods for preference revelation can be classified into two broad families.
The first one involves the case in which respondents are asked to simulate their market behaviour in a fictitious context designed by the researcher. The final goal of these studies is the estimation of willingness to pay (WTP), or willingness to accept (WTA), for changes in provision of non-market goods. A large literature investigates both theoretical issues connected with these procedures (Bates, 1988) and empirical results from country experiences (Mackie at al., 2003).
The second family of surveys are commonly employed in public opinion analysis. In this case respondents are asked to reveal their current attitudes, whilst in some circumstances they are required to state their satisfaction with a certain policy or service. In the last decades the interest towards such analysis largely increased and a broad amount of surveys have been systematically collected (Rabin, 2002).
Whatever the kind of analysis, when individuals correctly report the behaviour they would keep in a real context, or honestly admit their attitudes and perceptions, the target of the policy maker is reached. Hence, the issue of reliability of stated preferences becomes crucial in order to understand what we can learn from surveys and how SP analysis can be exploited by policy makers.
Our research question is simply the following one: can we trust in SP methods?
In order to answer this question the work is organised in three sections.
The first one is devoted to the definition of the concept of “reliability”. In the first place, the latter depends on the family of SP methods we are dealing with.
When individuals are required to replicate their market behaviour in a fictitious scenario, two perspectives can be applied: the first one based on mainstream economic theory (Hicks and Allen, 1934) and the other one in accordance to the so called behavioural programme (Sunstein and Thaler, 2008). Both approaches are discussed, pointing out the problematic issues which characterise each methodology and trying to propose a definition for the concept of reliability.
The second family of surveys can be classified into two sub-groups, based on the object of the analysis. The first group includes all situations where agents are required to reveal their actual behaviour (Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2001) while the second one is composed by those studies in which agents are asked to express their feelings or perceptions about a certain aspect of their life (McFadden et al. 2005). Again, the concept of reliability has been investigated for each group of surveys.
The second and the third sections are devoted to empirical works which try, recalling the definition of reliability suggested in the first chapter, to apply this concept to empirical studies.
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BORETTO, MARCO FELICE. "Cournot oligopoly with preference interdependence." Doctoral thesis, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10281/291150.
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Lo scopo di questa tesi `e di analizzare la presenza di una struttura sociale di preferenze interdipendenti in un oligopolio di Cournot. Per fare ci`o, in- troduciamo un gioco in cui la rete di interazioni si riflette nelle funzioni di utilit`a delle imprese. Considerando le preferenze interdipendenti, possiamo identificare un ulteriore canale di interazione tra le imprese, parallelamente all’ interazione di mercato, che stabilisce un’altra interazione, possibilmente locale o anche una forma di interazione one-to-one.
La modellizzazione proposta si rivela adatta per estendere i risultati sull’esistenza e unicit`a dell’equilibrio di Nash per modelli oligopolistici Cournotiani senza preferenze interdipendenti.
Studiamo il ruolo dell’interdipendenza delle preferenze sulle risultanti pro- priet`a dell’equilibrio di Nash, in termini di sostituibilit`a/complementarit`a strategica.
Caratterizziamo, inoltre, l’equilibrio di Nash attraverso i due canali di in- terazione tra imprese. Ci`o che emerge `e quindi il primato della sfera so- ciale su quella economica in particolari strutture economiche (es. oligopoli Cournotiani) con preferenze interdipendenti.
La caratterizzazione dell’equilibrio, il conseguente grado di competitivit`a derivante dall’interdipendenza delle preferenze sociali e la statica comparata possono essere tutte espresse in termini di misure che descrivono le propriet`a del network.
La statica comparativa ci consente di capire sia come un cambiamento nella struttura di interazione sociale di un singolo giocatore influenzi il risultato del giocatore stesso, in termini di aumento/diminuzione della sua quota di mercato, sia come un cambiamento nella struttura dell’interazione nel suo insieme influisca sul risultato collettivo, in termini di aumento/diminuzione dei profitti.The aim of this thesis is to analyze the presence of a structure of social in- teredependent preferences in a Cournot oligopoly. To do this, we introduce a game in which the network of interactions reflects on the utility functions of firms. Cconsidering interdependent preferences, we can identify an ad- ditional channel of interaction among firms, along with the usual market interaction that establish another, possibly local or even one-to-one form of interaction. The proposed modelling approach proves to be suitable to extend the re- sults about existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium for Cournotian oligopoly models without interdependent preferences. We study the role of preference interdependence on the resulting properties of the Nash equilibrium of any game, in terms of strategic substitutabil- ity/complementarity. We characterize the Nash equilibrium through the two channels of interac- tion among firms. What emerges is then the primacy of the social sphere over the economic one in particular economic structures (i.e. Cournotian oligopolies) with interdependent preferences. The characterization of the equilibrium, the resulting degree of competitive- ness arising from the interdependence of social preferences and the compar- ative statics can be all expressed in terms of measures that describe the network properties. Comparative statics allows us to understand both how a change in the social interaction structure of a single player influences the outcome of the player itself, in terms of increased/decreased market share, and how a change in the interaction structure as a whole affects the collective outcome, in terms of increased/decreased profits.
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Morse-Jones, Sian Caroline. "Investigating public preferences for tropical biodiversity amongst distant beneficiaries : developing the application of stated preference techniques." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/11276.
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