Inertial Behavior Research Articles

Inertia versus mimicry in location choices by Chinese multinationals

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment location – specifically whether firms enter a particular market or not. Drawing from the ecology and institutional theories, the paper identifies firms' own past (behavioral inertia) and rivals' past choices (behavioral mimicry) as key determinants of location selection. The paper identifies the differences between developing country multinationals (MNCs) and developed country MNCs and their (differences)' implications for the relative influence of mimetic versus inertial forces.Design/methodology/approachA unique and comprehensive database about the location choices of 204 Chinese firms between 1992 and 2005 was constructed and conditional logistic regressions were deployed to assess the direct effects of behavioral inertia/mimicry, and the moderating effect of host country environment, on the location choices of the sampled firms.FindingsThe paper finds that behavioral inertia has a stronger impact on the location decisions of Chinese MNCs than behavioral mimicry. It also finds that the host country's institutions, openness, and policy stability moderate the relationship between behavioral mimicry and inertia, on one hand, and location choice, on the other hand, possibly because of these factors' influence on the level of perceived uncertainty.Originality/valueThis is the first paper modeling the simultaneous effects of behavioral inertia and mimicry on location choice and the moderating effect of host country environment on these relationships. The strong empirical support for all the predictions lends credence to the conceptual foundations of the hypothesized relationships. The focus on developing country MNCs, which possess several distinctive characteristics, and the unique dataset, should also enhance the paper's appeal.

O plano inclinado de Galileu: uma medida manual e uma medida com aquisição automática de dados

Neste trabalho apresentamos a uma discussão sobre o trabalho em laboratório realizado em um projeto de ensino em que a história da ciência foi usada como mediador na construção de áreas de desenvolvimento cognitivo para a aprendizagem de conceitos de movimento. Após a discussão dos aspectos históricos e da evolução das idéias sobre movimento, os estudantes foram levados ao laboratório e estimulados a comparar as idéias discutidas previamente com os resultados de medidas tomadas manualmente em um primeiro momento e com o auxílio de um microcomputador e sensores de luz para aquisição automática de dados em um segundo momento. A construção do experimento foi realizada com materiais de baixo custo e o software utilizado na aquisição de dados é software livre LOGO. Os estudantes realizaram as medidas com um tubo de PVC colocado primeiramente na horizontal com a finalidade de investigar o conceito de inércia galileano, a seguir com o tubo inclinado investigaram se havia mudanças no valor da velocidade durante o deslocamento de queda. Os recursos utilizados e o experimento são descritos em detalhe, e uma avaliação do resultado é apresentada.

“Habit” gambling behaviour caused by ischemic lesions affecting the cognitive territories of the basal ganglia

We report the case of a patient suffering from sudden apathy and pathological gambling-like behaviour after bilateral ischemic lesions involving the dorsal portion of the head of the caudate nuclei and adjacent anterior limb of the internal capsules. This is the first report of the association of an apathy and abnormal gambling behaviour following a stroke affecting sub-cortical structures. Although the location of the lesions, affecting the dorsal striatum, may explain the emergence of an apathetic state, it is, however, at first sight, not easy to explain the gambling behaviour because the patient was normal in tests evaluating sensitivity to reward, and no radiological abnormality was found in the cortical-sub-cortical system of reward. It is proposed that, for this patient, the mechanism of maladaptive gambling behaviour was the development of a routine behaviour related to the patient's cognitive inertia, a mechanism different from the changes in reward sensitivity observed after damage to the orbital ventral prefrontal-ventral striatum system or in dopamine dysregulation syndrome in Parkinson's disease.

Cognitive Inertia and the Implicit Association Test

The authors review the implicit association test (IAT), its use in marketing, and the methodology and validity issues that surround it. They focus on a validity problem that has not been investigated previously, namely, the impact of cognitive inertia on IAT effects. Cognitive inertia refers to the difficulty in switching from one categorization rule to another, which causes IAT effects to depend on the order of administration of the two IAT blocks. In Study 1, the authors observe an IAT effect when the compatible block precedes the incompatible block but not when it follows the incompatible block. In Studies 2 and 3, the IAT effect changes its sign when the order of the blocks reverses. Cognitive inertia distorts individual IAT scores and diminishes the correlations between IAT scores and predictor variables when the block order is counterbalanced between subjects. Study 4 shows that counterbalancing the block order repeatedly within subjects can eliminate cognitive inertia effects on the individual level. The authors conclude that researchers should either interpret IAT scores at the aggregate level or, if individual IAT scores are of interest, counterbalance the block order repeatedly within subjects.

A CELLULAR AUTOMATA MODEL OF TRAFFIC FLOW WITH CONSIDERATION OF THE INERTIAL DRIVING BEHAVIOR

The inertial driving behavior, although observed in real traffic, has not been deeply understood in most previous studies. In this paper we propose a cellular automata model of the traffic on a single lane highway which considers the drivers' inertial behavior under different driving circumstances. Simulation results show that our model can capture such important features of the traffic as jam formation, phase transition and metastable states. Some of other models, like the slow-to-start model, can be derived from our model.

Variety-Seeking and Inertial Behaviour: The Disutility of Distance

This study incorporates the theories of variety-seeking and inertial behaviour into the tourist decision-making process by observing the dependence of an individual's current destination choice on his or her previous choice. The literature suggests that attributes characterizing a buying alternative are crucial in understanding the individual consumption pattern. Accordingly, this study proposes that the effect of the attribute ‘distance’ is contingent on a tourist's variety-seeking or inertial behaviour at the moment of choosing a destination, in the sense that these behaviour types could increase or diminish the negative effect of distance. The empirical application is carried out in Spain, by applying mixed logit models. The results show that variety-seeking behaviour reduces the dissuasive effect of distance and that inertial behaviour increases it.

Policy Irreversibility and Interest Rate Smoothing

Many empirical studies argue that the inertial behavior of policy rates in industrialized countries can be well explained by a linear partial adjustment version of the Taylor rule. However, the explanatory power of the lagged interest rate has been questioned from various points of view. This paper formally examines a situation in which a central bank has an aversion to frequent policy reversals. Imposing an irreversibility constraint on the control space makes the lagged interest rate a state variable. However, the policy function cannot then be expressed as a partial adjustment form, even if the original Taylor rule would be the correct policy function in the absence of the irreversibility constraint. The simulation results reveal that conventional regression tends to falsely support the functionally misspecified partial adjustment model. This implies that the significant role of the lagged interest may simply reflect the central banks’ aversion to policy reversal.

Behavioural inertia places a top marine predator at risk from environmental change in the Benguela upwelling system

In variable environments, organisms are bound to track environmental changes if they are to survive. Most marine mammals and seabirds are colonial, central-place foragers with long-term breeding-site fidelity. When confronted with environmental change, such species are potentially constrained in their ability to respond to these changes. For example, if environmental conditions deteriorate within their limited foraging range, long-lived species favour adult survival and abandon their current breeding effort, which ultimately influences population dynamics. Should poor conditions persist over several seasons, breeding-site fidelity may force animals to continue breeding in low-quality habitats instead of emigrating towards more profitable grounds. We assessed the behavioural response of a site-faithful central-place forager, the Cape gannet Morus capensis, endemic to the Benguela upwelling system, to a rapid shift in the distribution and abundance of its preferred prey, small pelagic shoaling fish. We studied the distribution and the abundance of prey species, and the diet, foraging distribution, foraging effort, energy requirements, and breeding success of gannets at Malgas Island (South Africa) over four consecutive breeding seasons. Facing a rapid depletion of preferred food within their foraging range, Cape gannets initially increased their foraging effort in search of their natural prey. However, as pelagic fish became progressively scarcer, breeding birds resorted to scavenging readily available discards from a nearby demersal fishery. Their chicks cannot survive on such a diet, and during our 4-year study, numbers of breeding birds at the colony decreased by 40% and breeding success of the remaining birds was very low. Such behavioural inflexibility caused numbers of Cape gannets breeding in Namibia to crash by 95% following over-fishing of pelagic fish in the 1970s. In the context of rapid environmental changes, breeding-site fidelity of long-lived species may increase the risk of local or even global extinction, rendering these species particularly vulnerable to global change.

Price setting and market structure: an empirical analysis of micro data in Slovakia

AbstractMost empirical studies on price setting that use micro data focus on advanced industrial countries. In this paper we analyze the experience of an emerging economy, Slovakia, using a large micro‐level dataset that accounts for a substantial part of the consumer price index (about 5 million observations). We find that market structure is an important determinant of pricing behavior. The effect of market structure on persistence of inflation results from two conflicting forces. Increased competition may reduce persistence by increasing the frequency of price changes. On the contrary, higher competition may increase persistence through inertial behaviour induced by the strategic complementarity among price setters. In our case study, we find that the latter effects dominate. Indeed, the dispersion of prices is higher while persistence is lower in the non‐tradable sectors, suggesting that higher competition is not conducive to lower persistence. Furthermore, we find that the frequency of price changes depends negatively on the price dispersion and positively on the product‐specific inflation. These results seem consistent with predictions of Calvo's staggered price model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sticky Information Diffusion and the Inertial Behavior of Durable Consumption

This paper studies the dynamics of durable and nondurable consumption under two alternative assumptions about information updating by households – rational inattention and sticky expectations. We first show that the two types of sticky information diffusion can help generate strong excess smoothness in durables consumption. We then find that sticky expectations due to a fixed cost does a better job of reproducing the infrequent adjustments of durables consumption at the individual level and the slow adjustments at the aggregate level. Finally, we show that finite information-processing capacity can by itself lead to infrequent adjustments even if there is no adjustment cost.

Possible forms and expected change: an evo-devo perspective on biological evolution

One hundred and fifty years since the publication of Darwin’s Origin of the species, natural selection still provides the main and arguably definitive explanation for biological evolution. However, some aspects of the theory have been inadequately explored until recently, in particular, the probability distributions of alternative phenotypes towards which existing living organisms are likely to evolve. There are, indeed, apparently forbidden phenotypes, even in the absence of any plausible arguments for their potential adaptive disadvantage, while, on the contrary, ‘monstrous’ phenotypes without any perspective into the future are repeatedly generated, often as a consequence of point mutations. Evolutionary developmental biology, or evo-devo, addresses specifically these aspects of disagreement between the generation of forms and their eventual survival, and explains them as the result of developmental constraints on the production of the phenotypes upon which selection will eventually operate. This is of major relevance in a discussion of macroevolutionary patterns, as exemplified by Williston’s ‘law’. This principle is far from representing a true law of nature. Nevertheless, its formulation invites adopting in evolutionary biology a methodological solution that has long proved effective in physics, namely introducing inertial principles and focussing on the forces that can deviate a biological system from its inertial behaviour. Evolvability does not affect simply the phenotypes, it affects also the rules by which evolution proceeds, and thus the categories we can adopt in describing it. No level of organization can be regarded as definitive, as the example of biological individuality demonstrates.

ASYMMETRIC PREFERENCES FOR INTEREST RATE VARIABILITY AND NON‐LINEAR MONETARY POLICY INERTIA

ABSTRACTIntroducing in a central bank loss function asymmetric preferences for interest rate stabilization together with a (symmetric) smoothing goal could lead to asymmetric interest rate smoothing. An empirical analysis supports this theoretical result and finds for the disinflation (Volcker) period a more cautious adjustment of interest rates downwards than upwards, and for the ‘price stability’ (Greenspan) period a more inertial behaviour in the opposite direction.

Inertia-driven spin switching in antiferromagnets

Magnetic switching is typically accomplished by using a driving field that stays on until the magnetization is rotated to its final position. An experiment demonstrates that, in antiferromagnets, inertial effects can be harnessed, such that only a short ‘kick’ is required to transfer sufficient momentum to the spin system for it to reorient. It is generally accepted that the fastest way to reorient magnetization is through precessional motion in an external magnetic field1,2,3,4,5,6,7. In ferromagnets, the application of a magnetic field instantaneously sets spins in motion and, in contrast to the inertial motion of massive bodies, the magnetization can climb over a potential barrier only during the action of a magnetic-field pulse. Here we demonstrate a fundamentally different scenario of spin switching in antiferromagnets, where the exchange interaction between the spins leads to an inertial behaviour. Although the spin orientation hardly changes during the action of an optically generated strong magnetic-field pulse of 100 fs duration, this pulse transfers sufficient momentum to the spin system to overcome the potential barrier and reorient into a new metastable state, long after the action of the stimulus. Such an inertia-based mechanism of spin switching should offer new opportunities for ultrafast recording and processing of magnetically stored information.

Dynamic linkages between mental models, resource constraints and differential performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus around the literatures of the resource‐based firm and cognitive mental models, explores the dynamic linkages between cognitive models, resources and firm performance in the context of the insurance industry.Design/methodology/approachIn a real‐life example drawn from the insurance industry, a process‐based simulation model is developed to explore the linkages between managerial mental models, resources and performance. It represents resources as endogenous flows and mental models and resource constraints as exogenous parameters. This allows, for example, the impact of heterogeneity in mental models, on such factors as the time path of resource allocations, resources and capabilities, and ultimately performance, to be studied in two firms (business units) in the insurance industry.FindingsIn general, heterogeneity in mental models leads to differences in performance in the long run. This finding is reinforced by the presence of resource constraints. Facing strategic change, however, it is often difficult for senior managers to overcome the influence of well‐established managerial mental models or recipes which create cognitive inertia and, in turn, hinder performance improvements.Originality/valueThere are few empirical studies which explore the impact of changes in mental models and resource constraints on firm‐performance and resource allocation decisions.

Magnetohydrodynamic dissipation range spectra for isotropic viscosity and resistivity

Dissipation range spectra for incompressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence are derived for isotropic viscosity μ and resistivity η. The spectra are obtained from heuristic closures of spectral transfer correlations for cases with Pm=μ/η≤1, where Pm is the magnetic Prandtl number. Familiar inertial range power laws are modified by exponential factors that dominate spectral falloff in the dissipation range. Spectral forms are sensitive to alignment between flow and magnetic field. There are as many as four Kolmogorov wavenumbers that parametrize the transition between inertial and dissipative behavior and enter corresponding spectral forms. They depend on the values of the viscosity and resistivity and on the nature of alignment in inertial and dissipation ranges.

La encrucijada de la Vivienda de Interés Social en Bogotá: Los precios del suelo

En este documento se estudia el problema de la vivienda de interés social, VIS, en Bogotá asociada al precio del suelo. Se revisan algunos postulados que han tenido un impacto sobre el problema de manejo del precio del suelo. Se parte de la revisión de la estructura de asentamiento poblacional de la ciudad como evidencia de la desequilibrada ocupación y oferta de bienes urbanos. La perspectiva cuantitativa utilizada indica que la incorporación de suelo urbano no tiene el efecto señalado de bajar los precios. La dinámica de los precios del suelo muestra un comportamiento inercial de estos, derivados de la racionalidad algo ingenua de los propietarios. La asociación con la evolución de la construcción indica que los constructores y su tendencia a capturar rentas de anticipación los lleva a cometer errores si no se preveen los ciclos. A pesar de ser una industria con una organización competitiva existe evidencia de un componente no explicado del precio que puede ser igualmente una renta, en este caso tecnológica.

An exploratory study of cognitive effort involved in decision under Framing—an application of the eye-tracking technology

The framing effect, proposed by Tversky and Kahneman [A. Tversky, D. Kahneman, The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice, Science 211 (4481) (1981) 453–458.], refers to the phenomenon that varying the presentations of the same problem can systematically affect the choice one makes. In this research we have reviewed a literature related to the framing effect and neurobiological studies of emotion. This review leads us to conceptualize that framing may induce emotion, which in turn impinges on the level of cognitive effort that subsequently shapes the framing effect. We then employ the eye-tracking technology to explore the differences in cognitive effort under both positive and negative framing conditions. Among the four experimental problems, disease and gambling problems are found to exhibit the framing effect, while the kittens' therapy and the plant problem do not. In analyzing the level of eye movement for the four problems, we find that cognitive effort asymmetry plays a critical role in the production of the framing effect. That is, for the two problems that display the framing effect, subjects expend more effort in the negative framing condition than they do in the positive, yet the framing effect persists, indicating that they cannot change their cognitive inertia despite this increase in cognitive effort. The finding has potential implications for the design of information presentation to facilitate decision making.

Information technology and mindfulness in organizations

The concept of mindfulness has lately been applied to organizations that are increasingly attentive to their environment and adaptive to unanticipated events. This article analyzes how information technology impacts mindfulness in organizations. Information technology is proposed to promote mindfulness by engaging organizations in more extensive search processes and by fuelling organizational innovations with a repertoire of routines. However, information technology is also found to decrease mindfulness and impede organizational adoption by promoting cognitive inertia and making the enactment of change more challenging. The article also identifies the practices IT-intensive organizations apply to promote more mindful behavior. Copyright 2009 The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.

Anomalous Diffusion of Symmetric and Asymmetric Active Colloids

The stochastic dynamics of colloidal particles with surface activity-in the form of catalytic reaction or particle release-and self-phoretic effects are studied analytically. Three different time scales corresponding to inertial effects, solute redistribution, and rotational diffusion are identified and shown to lead to a plethora of different regimes involving inertial, propulsive, anomalous, and diffusive behaviors. For symmetric active colloids, a regime is found where the mean-squared displacement has a superdiffusive t;{3/2} behavior. At the longest time scales, an effective diffusion coefficient is found which has a nonmonotonic dependence on the size of the colloid.

Order Effects in the Iat

We demonstrate that the IAT is crucially influenced by the order in which the two IAT-blocks are administered. In three studies the IAT-effect is shown to change in magnitude and sign when the order of the ‘compatible’ and the ‘incompatible’ block is reversed. Order effects are caused by cognitive inertia, the difficulty to switch from one categorization rule to another categorization rule. Cognitive inertia distorts correlations between IAT-scores and other variables. While the common practice of counterbalancing block-order between-subjects does not cancel out these distortions, we show in study 4 that counterbalancing block-order repeatedly within-subjects can eliminate order effects.