Florence, T.F. Tse and Catherine Y.P. Chan
This paper aims to suggest a user-approach to doing style designs for apparel products.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to suggest a user-approach to doing style designs for apparel products.
Design/methodology/approach
A case of the approach to produce a collection of party dresses for mothers-to-be was presented. Two consecutive studies were conducted to understand and identify the needs of contemporary business women for maternity party dresses to attend banquets and functions. In these two studies, direct dialogue with target customers and scene deployment were used to collect the voice of the customer (VOC); affinity diagramming was used to organize the collected VOC data into items that were required by target customers; and the pairwise comparison method of analytic hierarchy process was used to identify important requirements.
Findings
In using various design techniques and incorporating appropriate fashion elements, style designs were produced with the primary focus on meeting user needs.
Originality/value
It has been a common practice that marketers do market research and designers do style creation. However, a joint effort of these two parties is required to better understand and address user needs. With the main focus on collecting and analyzing the VOC and organizing it into customer needs before applying various design techniques and incorporating appropriate fashion elements, the style designs that were produced in this case study were highly capable of satisfying user needs.
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Catherine Y.P. Chan, S.F. Chan, K. Chan and W.C. Ip
The purpose of this paper is to develop a thinking model to recommend to the vocational education institutions for planning their educational business in the face of marketization.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a thinking model to recommend to the vocational education institutions for planning their educational business in the face of marketization.
Design/methodology/approach
The systems approach is adopted for developing the model. It is not only used for the conceptualization of the principles of systems, but also applied as the technique for reviewing and proposing where and in what direction the institutions should improve their business plan to meet the transformational change.
Findings
The current objective and strategy of the institutions are found to be necessary, but not sufficient for meeting the real challenge of marketization. The model recommends the vocational education planners to focus on the new objective of satisfying individuals' working needs and improve the process of course design to enhance the competitiveness of the institutions in the open market.
Practical implications
The proposed new dimension of business planning has two implications for vocational education practitioners. First, course design should start with taking the individuals' perspective to decide how their working needs can be met. Second, it is necessary to explore new methods for collecting, interpreting and incorporating the voices of working needs into the design of contents and features.
Originality/value
The thinking model offers an objective and rational approach to vocational education planners and practitioners for formulating a holistic business plan to meet new challenges. It is hoped that the recommendations will assist the institutions to perform their changing roles in the new economy of the society and to achieve long‐term success in the dynamic environment.
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Catherine Y.P. Chan, G. Taylor and W.C. Ip
The purpose of this paper is to present a case study on the development of an in‐house training course, with the focus on providing the job incumbents with the necessary knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a case study on the development of an in‐house training course, with the focus on providing the job incumbents with the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve the performance required by the management.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a user‐oriented and learner‐centred approach and followed the key principles and basic steps of QFD. Affinity diagramming and conversion table were used to assist in the collection, processing and deployment of the voice of the customer (VOC), and the AHP was employed to operate the various prioritizations involved.
Findings
The job incumbents found the training course to be helpful in managing their learning. The members of the course development team also gained a greater understanding of both the performance requirements of the management and the knowledge and skills needed by the job incumbents.
Originality/value
The successful application of QFD in this study has provided the training industry with a course development methodology for meeting the learning needs of the job incumbents.
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Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American…
Abstract
Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.
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This chapter investigates the impact of different state correlation assumptions for out-of-sample performance of unobserved components (UC) models with stochastic volatility…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the impact of different state correlation assumptions for out-of-sample performance of unobserved components (UC) models with stochastic volatility. Using several measures of US inflation the author finds that allowing for correlation between inflation’s trend and cyclical (or gap) components is a useful feature to predict inflation in the short run. In contrast, orthogonality between such components improves the out-of-sample performance as the forecasting horizon widens. Accordingly, trend inflation from orthogonal trend-gap UC models closely tracks survey-based measures of long-run inflation expectations. Trend dynamics in the correlated-component case behave similarly to survey-based nowcasts. To carry out estimation, an efficient algorithm which builds upon properties of Toeplitz matrices and recent advances in precision-based samplers is provided.
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The endpoint and hallmark of the success of intercultural teaching is often seen as the attainment of intercultural competence. Yet, there is a need for a detailed examination of…
Abstract
The endpoint and hallmark of the success of intercultural teaching is often seen as the attainment of intercultural competence. Yet, there is a need for a detailed examination of some of the enduring personal and professional identity and culture aspects of cross-cultural teaching. In this chapter, I deliberate over the application of narrative inquiry tools for unpacking teachers' experiences of immersion in a foreign country and culture of schooling. I reflect on my own experiences as a teacher in Japan and draw on an inquiry into the experiences of novice Canadian teachers in Hong Kong or Japan to shed light on fluid conceptions of culture shock and reverse culture shock in terms of cultural identity transformations. I also raise to the forefront inquiry puzzles about the phenomenon of intercultural competence acquisition.
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Alexander Settles and Valentina Kuskova
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine methodological trends in emerging market strategy research and to provide a comprehensive review of methods of assessing group…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine methodological trends in emerging market strategy research and to provide a comprehensive review of methods of assessing group variation in comparative studies.
Methodology/approach – This comprises a systematic review of the methodology of emerging market research over the past 10 years, followed by methodological best practices for comparative studies involving emerging and mature markets, with exemplars from the past research.
Findings – Despite previous calls for more comparative studies in emerging market research, most of the literature is reporting on single-country studies. There is some confusion in terminology and the methods used in this area of strategy research. Increased attention to the “East” calls for a reevaluation of methods utilized in comparative studies. The methods described in this chapter present best practices for comparative research.
Social implications – More comparative studies would substantially expand our understanding of the differences between the emerging and developed markets, and the potential impact of emerging markets on global economy. Rigorous research methods extend validity and generalizability of the studies.
Originality/value – This chapter is the first study to date to analyze the methodological trends of the entire field of emerging market research over the span of 10 years and to provide systematic methodological recommendations tailored to analyzing variation in comparative studies.
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Rachel Ashworth, Tom Entwistle, Julian Gould‐Williams and Michael Marinetto
This monograph contains abstracts from the 2005 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference Cardiff Business School,Cardiff University, 6‐7th September 2005
Abstract
This monograph contains abstracts from the 2005 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, 6‐7th September 2005
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Ayodeji E. Oke, Seyi S. Stephen and Clinton O. Aigbavboa