Complementarity Relationships Research Articles

Using google search patterns to explain the demand for wild edible mushrooms

The demand for quality wild fungi has been continually increasing over the past few years. However, problems arise when modelling this demand, owing to the difficulty of finding precise data on their origin or value chain. Nor is there any reliable information on the preferences of consumers; therefore, in this work, we aimed to analyse the influence of internet search engines on the demand for porcini mushrooms, a highly appreciated wild fungus. For this purpose, weekly figures for their prices and the amounts sold over nine years in one of the main central markets in Spain have been recorded for diverse wild (porcini, saffron milk caps, and king oyster mushrooms) and cultivated fungi. In addition, for the same period, searches for wild mushrooms using Google Trends and Google search engines were analysed. The results show that these searches improve the classic demand model, presenting different signs with regard to their influence on the price of the mushroom analysed. An increase in searches over time was also verified, which could be considered as an indicator of an increase in demand. Lastly, no complementarity relationships or substitutions for any other emblematic mushroom in Spain (saffron milk caps), or for any cultivated fungi, were observed.

The Exactness of the [formula omitted] Penalty Function for a Class of Mathematical Programs with Generalized Complementarity Constraints

In a Mathematical Program with Generalized Complementarity Constraints (MPGCC), complementarity relationships are imposed between each pair of variable blocks. MPGCC includes the traditional Mathematical Program with Complementarity Constraints (MPCC) as a special case. On account of the disjunctive feasible region, MPCC and MPGCC are generally difficult to handle. The ℓ1 penalty method, often adopted in computation, opens a way of circumventing the difficulty. Yet it remains unclear about the exactness of the ℓ1 penalty function, namely, whether there exists a sufficiently large penalty parameter so that the penalty problem shares the optimal solution set with the original one. In this paper, we consider a class of MPGCCs that are of multi-affine objective functions. This problem class finds applications in various fields, e.g., the multi-marginal optimal transport problems in many-body quantum physics and the pricing problems in network transportation. We first provide an instance from this class, the exactness of whose ℓ1 penalty function cannot be derived by existing tools. We then establish the exactness results under rather mild conditions. Our results cover those existing ones for MPCC and apply to multi-block contexts.

Differences in the Impact of Innovation Relationships on Firms’ Productivity: Evidence from CIS 2014

ABSTRACT The existence of complementarity relationships between different types of innovations is important for developing synergistic effects and economies of scale. This, in turn, should yield increased firm productivity. Here, we explore the potential impact of complementarity and/or substitutability relationships between different innovation activities on the firms’ performance by utilizing cross-sectional data taken from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS2014) for two groups of countries: Central and Eastern Europe and Western European countries. The results indicate that all types of innovation have a statistically significant and positive impact on the productivity of the companies operating in both markets.

Applying the time continuum model of motivation to explain how major factors affect mobile learning motivation: a comparison of SEM and fsQCA

PurposeStudying mobile learning – the use of electronic devices (i.e. cellphone and tablets) to engage in learning across multiple contexts via connection to peers, media, experts and the larger world is a relatively new academic enterprise. This study analyzes the influencing factors of mobile learning (M-learning) motivation based on the time continuum model of motivation (TCMM).Design/methodology/approachThe study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to verify relationships between mobile learning motivation, attitude, need, stimulation, emotion, ability and reinforcement. Justification for the use of both methods lies in the complementarity relationships that existed between the variables and research methodologies. The sample contains 560 mobile learners' feedback.FindingsResults show that attitude, need, emotion, ability and reinforcement are important factors to enhance mobile learning motivation, while stimulation is not.Practical implicationsThis work highlights the importance of training for app designers on how to design an M-learning App with high learning motivation by paying prior attention to learning content, teaching team and online learning communities.Originality/valueThis study proposes three precise solutions (scholars, managers and practitioners) to improve learning motivation based on the categorization of mobile learners.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2021-0226.

Análisis contrastivo. La dialéctica de la igualdad y la diferencia

The contrastive method compares two or more elements, categories or structures within the same language or interlinguistically, identifying similarities and differences to establish complementarity relationships as a basis for their integration into more comprehensive and abstract schemes that account for the functional constancy in the structural variation. In the history of linguistics a model based on a particular language has often been used to describe the structure of other languages. The same has happened in the ontogenetic and pedagogical domains. The contrastive analysis helps to lay the foundations for an off-centered description that reconciles structural variation with functional constancy. The results of the contrastive analysis must be the basis of typology, and at the universalistic level typological variation must be integrated into more general schemes called operations. The four descriptive levels interact in a inductive deductive circle, forming an integrated program.

Estimating elasticities of substitution for sin goods

ABSTRACT Own-price and cross-price elasticities of substitution are estimated for the six ‘sin’ goods of spirits, beer, wine, casino gambling and lotteries using aggregate U.S. quarterly national data. The own-price and cross-price elasticities of substitution are not constrained to be constant over the sample and are estimated using the Fourier flexible form. There is evidence of much variation in substitution over the sample, including during the recessions. All ‘sin’ goods, except lotteries, have inelastic demands. Beer and tobacco have the most inelastic demands which are consistent with the evidence that beer is the most popular type of spirit while tobacco products are often considered addictive commodities. The three types of alcohol of spirits, beer, and wine are Morishima cross-price substitutes. Casino gambling and lotteries are Morishima cross-price substitutes having an elastic response to price changes in casino gambling but have and inelastic response for price changes of lotteries. Estimates show that the remaining ‘sin’ goods are complements in use. Policy makers must consider how a tax on a ‘sin’ good will impact demand for the good partially based on its own-price elasticity of demand as well as the cross-price elasticity of substitution or complementarity relationships with other ‘sin’ goods.

The Construction of Household Waste Territories in Yaounde: A Centre-Periphery Analysis

This contribution engages an analysis of the complementarity relationships in local waste management to the requirement of a coherent urban governance that is informed by the theoretical approach of the centre-periphery relationship. It is interested in the essence of the construction of the central and peripheral territories of household waste as a result of the processes and logics of central and peripheral actor figures. The choice of the study area was made in response to the objectives of analyzing the logics of spatialized actors and observing the practices of household waste circulation in these different spaces. We analyze two scales of entry: the Yaounde urban community and the district councils [of Yaounde 6 and 3] that make up the community, which are more marked by a strong pre-collection and collection of household waste by the private sector on the one hand, as well as Hysacam. Data collection was based on a variety of institutional and scientific documentary sources and on non-structured interviews with officials and non-officials. The Yaounde Urban Council (YUC), pre-collection operators, NGOs and waste collection companies—PAN and Hysacam constitute sites of investigation.

Employment effects of payroll tax subsidies

This paper exploits several reforms of wage subsidies in the framework of the German Minijob program to investigate substitution and complementarity relationships between subsidized and non-subsidized labor demand. We apply an instrumental variables approach and use administrative data on German establishments for the period 1999–2014. Particularly in small establishments (0–9 employees), subsidized Minijob employment comprises large shares of the work force, on average over 40%. For these establishments, robust evidence shows that increasing the subsidization of Minijob employment crowds out non-subsidized employment. Our results imply that Minijob employment in 2014 may have eliminated more than 0.5 million unsubsidized employment relationships just in small establishments. This represents an unintended and harmful consequence of the Minijob subsidy.

Complementarity Relationships and Critical Configurations in Rigid-Body Collisions of Planar Kinematic Chains With Smooth External Contacts

Abstract In this article, we consider a special class of collision problems that are frequently encountered in the field of robotics. Such problems can be described as a kinematic chain with one of its ends striking an external surface, while the remaining ends resting on other surfaces. This type of problem involves complementarity relationships between the normal velocities and impulses at the contacting ends. We present a solution method that takes into account the complementarity conditions at the contacting ends. In addition, we study the critical configurations of particle and rigid-body chains where the impulse wave generated by impact gets blocked before it reaches a contacting end.

Sliding cable modeling: A nonlinear complementarity function based framework

Sliding cables are widespread in engineering applications. The friction between the cable and the sliding components results in the existence of diversified motion states of the contact points, which leads to many difficult problems for traditional analysis methods. This paper proposes an effective and robust nonlinear complementarity function based framework for static and dynamic analyses of sliding cable problems. The core idea is that the involved sliding criterion is expressed by complementarity relationships which can be further reformulated as a set of equation by using the modified Fischer-Burmeister complementarity function. By considering the instrumental sliding lengths as additional degrees of freedom in the finite element model, the sliding nodes searching and the geometric configuration searching in the analysis can be handed in a unified framework. The solution can be obtained by using classical Newton-Raphson scheme with a closed-form expression of tangent matrix. Cumbersome trial and error iterations for sliding node searching in traditional analysis methods are rigorously avoided, and always the same equation is used regardless of whether a particular contact point would be sticking or sliding. This framework is developed mainly for implicit static and dynamic analyses, but can also be integrated into explicit analyses. Some typical examples are presented to illustrate the robustness and versatility of the proposed approach. The result highlight its ability to capture the complex and diverse motion states of the contact points in a rather direct way.

Knowledge, robots and productivity in SMEs: Explaining the second digital wave

This study provides new insights into the link among knowledge, industrial robotics and labor productivity by testing 12 hypotheses on samples of 1,515 and 1,380 Spanish manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 2008 and 2015. Our research has resulted in four main statements: Firsty, robotic devices are associated with better performance, higher productivity and employment rates, as well as with a more knowledge-intensive value process. Secondly, in 2015, robotics accounted for a 5% increase of SME productivity level (2% in 2008). Thirdly, between 2008 and 2015, SME labor productivity models have progressively granted greater relevance to multi-factor productivity components (knowledge flows and the use of robotics) and human capital. Finally, robot use has generated new complementarity relationships among the explanatory factors of labour productivity. In already-robotized SMEs, the knowledge spillover relates with more favorable effects of capital deepening and exports and to human capital in the non-robotized SMEs.

Tesauros e ontologias como modelos de sistemas de organização do conhecimento

Discute os conceitos de organização e representação do conhecimento como subsídios para a compreensão dos tesauros e das ontologias enquanto modalidades de sistemas de organização do conhecimento. A análise das relações de complementaridade entre ambos os instrumentos faz-se necessária para reafirmar a concepção de que o aspecto tecnológico e, principalmente, categorial mais os aproxima do que os isola. Subordinando, portanto, os conceitos de tesauro e de ontologias ao conceito mais amplo de sistemas de organização do conhecimento, reflete sobre algumas de suas implicações teóricas e aplicadas. Tais reflexões são orientadas pelo modo como cada instrumento compreende as relações conceituais associativas. Conclui-se que o aparato tecnológico que se utiliza para a caracterização dos conceitos e de suas relações nas ontologias contribui para a construção de tesauros mais sofisticados do ponto de vista da explicitação dos conceitos e das relações conceituais que visa estabelecer. Em outra direção e de modo complementar, o modelo de análise categorial e facetado empregado na construção de tesauros também contribui para a construção de ontologias semântica e estruturalmente mais densas.

A Recommendation Method Based on Semantic Similarity and Complementarity Using Weighted Taxonomy: A Case on Construction Materials Dataset

Products and web pages are the main components of the e-commerce data knowledge and the relationship among them is an important issue to be highly considered in recommender systems. This study aims to focus on the similarity and complementarity relationships among the products that have wide applications in the recommender systems. In the previously proposed methods, products and their relationships were revealed using taxonomy and “IS-A” relationship. In addition, the similarity and complementarity calculations were conducted based on edge computation by assigning a similar degree to any edge. More specifically, the children of a concept in the taxonomy was supported by a similar father’s “IS-A” degree. In contrast, this study provides a new approach based on ontology, data mining, and automatic discovering algorithms for the relationships with different degrees for the edges among the concepts. Accordingly, these relationships are initialised according to the “IS-A” degree. With regard to this weighted taxonomy, the semantic similarity and complementarity are measured based on concept distance. In addition, the proposed recommender system is item-based, which uses semantic similarity and complementarity. The required data for the present study were collected from construction materials supplier. The results illustrated that our proposed method is effective for construction materials recommendation.

Complementarity and bargaining power

Bargaining power in vertical channels depends critically on the or the opportunity cost to each player should negotiations fail. In a multiproduct context, disagreement profit depends on the degree of substitutability among the products offered by the downstream retailer. Horn and Wolinsky (1988) use this fact to argue for the clear importance of complementarity relationships on bargaining power. We develop an empirical framework that is able to estimate the effect of retail complementarity on bargaining power, and margins earned by manufacturers and retailers in the French soft drink industry. We show that complementarity increases the strength of retailers' bargaining position, so their share of the total margin increases by almost 28% relative to the no-complementarity case.

Preestablished Plant Influences on Antelope Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentataPursh) Seedling Recruitment and Growth: Analysis of Species and Positional Effects

We evaluated the influence of preestablished plant species distance, direction, and identity on antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata Pursh) seedling establishment and biomass production. Antelope bitterbrush seeds were planted 10- and 20-cm away from the base of three preestablished plant species. We monitored seedling establishment and growth during and after two growing seasons. Sowing antelope bitterbrush seeds 20-cm away from preestablished plant bases yielded 1.59 times greater seedling establishment than seeds sown 10-cm away, suggesting that established plants interfere with bitterbrush recruitment. Antelope bitterbrush seedling survival after 2 y of growth was greater than 96% for all treatments, suggesting that early growth phases were the primary bottlenecks to establishment. Antelope bitterbrush forage production decreased with proximity to preestablished plants. After 2 y of growth, antelope bitterbrush biomass was almost 3 times greater for plants grown without preestablished plant neighbors or with a preestablished grass (Elymus elymoides Raf.) than with preestablished forb species (Dalea candida Michx. ex Willd. or Gaillardia aristata Pursh). Inoculating preestablished plants with soil from native sites or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi did not influence antelope bitterbrush establishment or growth. We suggest that plant trait complementarity and spatial relationships can be used to design seeding strategies to increase antelope bitterbrush establishment and forage production.

An Overall Urban System: Integrating Central Place Theory and Urban Network Idea in the Greater Pearl River Delta of China

Following a half century of popularity, central place theory experienced 20 years of neglect when the new urban system theory of network modeling gained attention at the beginning of the 1990s. However, central place theory remains valid, and it seems there has been a reemergence with it. Using the Greater Pearl River Delta (Greater PRD) as an experimental study region, this paper intends to present an empirical study that validates central place theory and shows that it can be integrated into an overall regional urban system. The study uses the compound Central Place Importance (CPI) to evaluate whether there is a hierarchy among the urban centers within the study area. The results indicate the existence of a hierarchy. Furthermore, empirical observation finds distinct complementarity relationships, rank-size distributions, and co-operative actions between the different cities, thus substantiating the claim that central place theory can be incorporated into an overall regional urban system. Besides, the presence of the densely distributed modern infrastructure system also appears to constitute a dimension of the overall urban system. There need further theoretical and empirical studies in order to support this proposition.

Innovation, complementarity, and exporting. Evidence from German manufacturing firms

This paper assesses whether there might be complementarities between different types of innovation activities (product, process and organizational) and how these effects may be linked to the likelihood that a firm will export. Complementarity is addressed through the properties of supermodular functions, and firm heterogeneity by export destination is explored. A new econometric strategy to test for pairwise complementarity in a function with three independent variables and a binary dependent variable is proposed. Exogenous and endogenous innovation variables are considered by using bootstrapping for hypothesis testing, propensity score matching and treatment effects models. The empirical analysis shows that complementarity relationships between innovation strategies are more likely to exist when firms export to multiple foreign markets.

The Different Contribution of Productive Factors to Economic Growth in mena Countries

The aim of this study is to analyse the extent to which different productive factors, and the relationships that exist between them, affect the economic growth of productivity in ten Middle Eastern and North African (mena) countries during the period 1990-2010. A translog production function is estimated by using panel data and the contribution of the factors to growth is calculated. The results show a positive effect of the physical and human capital on productivity and high complementarity relationships between them, both factors being essential in determining economic growth. However, the magnitude of their contribution varies substantially between the ten countries considered. Thus, the capitalisation of the economies and the improvement of the human capital seem to be key policy elements of economic growth in these countries. Nevertheless, a considerable part of the economic growth cannot be explained by these factors, particularly in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

An Empirically Derived Framework for Conceptualizing Schein’s Career Orientation Theory

In response to Feldman and Bolino’s call for a career anchor categorization system, several nonempirical and empirical attempts have been made to describe the relationships between career anchors. Feldman and Bolino suggest that such a system would be useful for counseling individuals and describing their career decisions. This article identifies the weaknesses of current career anchor relationship models and proposes an approach for conceptualizing complementarity and exclusivity relationships between career anchors. The results suggest a new approach for describing the underlying dimensions which influence career decisions. Four underlying career dimensions with dichotomous poles are identified and described. It is suggested that Schein’s practice of characterizing career orientation using eight career anchor profiles may be too inflexible and imprecise to accommodate current understandings of career orientation. It would be simpler, yet more precise, to map individuals directly to the underlying dimensions that govern career anchors rather than use career anchors as an intermediary.

Productive energy use and economic growth: Energy, physical and human capital relationships

Ecological and biophysical economists and historians of economics consider that availability of energy inputs has played a key role in driving economic growth in industrialized and emerging economies. Nevertheless, being very sensitive to structural characteristics or stages of economic development, the strength of this link differs among countries. This study analyzes the role of energy in economic growth from a geographical standpoint by estimating an aggregate translog production function, with human and physical capital and productive energy use as production factors, within a growth framework. Panel data of 38 major countries for the period from 1995 to 2007 were used. The strength of the link between energy and growth is analyzed for the whole sample and the following relevant country groups: OECD, BRIC, NAFTA, East Asian, East European and EU15 countries. Obtained results show that the calculated productivity elasticities with respect to energy use are positive for all country groups. BRIC countries have higher elasticities, around 0.37, and EU15 countries have lower elasticities, around 0.12. Weak substitutability relationships between energy and capital are observed for all groups, except for BRIC and East European countries, which show complementarity relationships.