Information Acquisition Time Research Articles

QFII shareholding, information access and corporate asset mismatching

Existing research on the efficiency of corporate asset allocation based on different perspectives has become the focus of academic attention and research. However, there are few studies that consider the underlying causes of asset mismatch, especially the lack of in-depth research on the role of information acquisition time difference in the mechanism between asset mismatch and inventory holding. Therefore, based on perspective of information access time difference and empirical evidence from listed companies from 2007 to 2022, this paper empirically finds that QFII stockholding significantly inhibits corporate asset mismatch behaviour; meanwhile, information access time difference can strengthen this inhibiting effect.

Information in financial markets: Who gets it first?

I compare the timing of information acquisition among institutional investors and sell-side analysts. I find that hedge funds are unique: they anticipate analyst reports, and then reverse their positions after analysts publish reports. These trends are strongest for hedge funds and analysts most closely geographically situated. I also find that hedge funds generate their highest risk-adjusted returns among stocks with high analyst coverage. These results indicate that hedge funds are faster relative to analysts and other investors, and suggest that analysts assist hedge funds in exploiting their information acquisition advantages.

Microblog Topic-Words Detection Model for Earthquake Emergency Responses Based on Information Classification Hierarchy

Social media data are constantly updated, numerous, and characteristically prominent. To quickly extract the needed information from the data to address earthquake emergencies, a topic-words detection model of earthquake emergency microblog messages is studied. First, a case analysis method is used to analyze microblog information after earthquake events. An earthquake emergency information classification hierarchy is constructed based on public demand. Then, subject sets of different granularities of earthquake emergency information classification are generated through the classification hierarchy. A detection model of new topic-words is studied to improve and perfect the sets of topic-words. Furthermore, the validity, timeliness, and completeness of the topic-words detection model are verified using 2201 messages obtained after the 2014 Ludian earthquake. The results show that the information acquisition time of the model is short. The validity of the whole set is 96.96%, and the average and maximum validity of single words are 78% and 100%, respectively. In the Ludian and Jiuzhaigou earthquake cases, new topic-words added to different earthquakes only reach single digits in validity. Therefore, the experiments show that the proposed model can quickly obtain effective and pertinent information after an earthquake, and the complete performance of the earthquake emergency information classification hierarchy can meet the needs of other earthquake emergencies.

A sensitive period for the induction of host plant preference in a generalist herbivorous insect

Many species use early life sensory experiences to guide phenotypic plasticity and facilitate decision making during later adult settlement in new habitats or location of suitable resources. However, only some of the available sensory information in the environment is relevant for future decision making and, in addition, it may only be informative during certain times during development. This means that sampling of environmental information that should be retained to adulthood could be limited to certain sensitive periods. In the polyphagous moth Spodoptera littoralis , recent studies have demonstrated that adult females exhibit an innate preference hierarchy for certain plants that can be modulated by olfactory experience during the larval stage. This olfactory-driven phenotypic plasticity requires that information about plant quality is transferred over the full metamorphosis. However, the timing of information acquisition that affects adult behaviour and whether there is a sensitive period for the sensory experience inducing host plant preferences are not known. In this study, we tested whether experience used by adult females during host plant choice was acquired during early or later larval stages and whether adult females can retain larval experience from only one or from sequential feeding events on different plants. We found that only plant feeding experience during the later larval stages induced a host plant preference shift in adult females. Furthermore, our experiments demonstrated that when given an artificial diet in the later larval stage, adult females relied on their innate plant preference hierarchy even if they had feeding experience from a host plant in the early stages. The existence of a sensitive period during late larval stages may be constrained not only by neural development or limitations, but also by ecological factors affecting when the larval experience is most reliable for adult decisions. • Larval experience affects adult moth host plant decisions. • There is a sensitive period for host plant cue transfer over the full metamorphosis. • Only experience at late larval instars affects adult host plant choice decisions. • Adults use innate preference when exposed to early instar plant experience.

Timing of Information Acquisition and Decision Making on New Product Development Under Decentralized Organization

When an investment is in goodwill, a divisional performance measurement based on residual income is subject to what is included in assets, as IFRS requires. Especially in case the project may be shut down on its way, investment base for the calculation of residual income measures is dependent of the continuation decision on such projects. I investigate residual income performance measure and capital charge rate in the situation where there may be continuation decision on a project whose prospect looks bad. In the analysis of this problem, I compare two schemes on continuation decision on such a project in a bad condition: deliberate scheme under which the manager can refer more detailed but delyed information; precommitment scheme under which the manager makes a prompt decision without any further relevant information. Under deliberate scheme, capital charge rate plays a role of controlling a continuation decision but decreases the incentive of additional expenditure. Under precommitment scheme, capital charge rate has neither role nor negative effect but causes any project in a bad condition to be continued. Which scheme is more desirable depends on two parameters: return when a project fails and principal's opportunity loss caused by continuation of a failed project. In an extended model, I investigate influence of noisy signals and show that the validity of conservative accounting system depends on the principal's opportunity loss.

Mid-auction information acquisition

An English auction is studied in which bidders can acquire information during the bidding process, allowing for heterogeneity both in ex-ante private information and the cost of information acquisition. The best response has a simple characterization where the optimal information acquisition time is unaffected by the other bidders’ strategies. We prove the existence of an equilibrium in a novel way by characterizing it as a fixed point in the space of bid distributions rather than the space of bid functions. Furthermore, we show that when bidders have homogeneous ex-ante private information about valuations: (1) The English auction generates more revenue than the Vickrey auction when the number of bidders is sufficiently large; and (2) the English auction is more efficient than the Vickrey auction when the information acquisition cost are relatively small. We present numerical simulations that show that these effects can be large. Our findings provide an additional explanation for the popularity of the English auction, even in settings where the bidders’ valuations are independent.

Information in Financial Markets: Who Gets It First?

I compare the timing of information acquisition among institutional investors and sell-side analysts, and I show that hedge fund trades predict the direction of subsequent analyst ratings change reports while other investors' trades do not. In addition, hedge funds reverse trades after analyst reports, while other investors follow the analysts. Finally, I show that hedge funds perform best among stocks with high analyst coverage. These results suggest that hedge funds have superior information acquisition skills, and that analysts assist hedge funds in exploiting information acquisition advantages. These dynamics illustrate how hedge funds play an important role in information generation.

Timing of information acquisition in a competitive environment

This article investigates the impact of timing on sellers' information acquisition strategies in a duopoly setting. Market uncertainty is captured by a representative consumer who has a private taste for the product's horizontal attribute, and both sellers can acquire this information either before (ex-ante acquisition) or after (ex-post acquisition) observing their own product qualities. We identify several conflicting effects of information acquisition that vary significantly in its timing and market characteristics. In the monopoly scenario, information acquisition is unambiguously beneficial and ex-ante acquisition is the dominant option, because it helps a seller not only design the proper product but also craft better pricing strategy. By contrast, when there is competition, information acquisition eliminates the buffer role of market uncertainty and leads to the fiercest production or pricing competition, which makes the subsequent effects of acquisition detrimental, and a seller's payoff is nonmonotonic in terms of its acquisition cost. Moreover, compared with the ex-ante information acquisition, ex-post information acquisition normally generates higher sellers' equilibrium payoffs by postponing the timing of acquisition and maintaining product differentiation. Nonetheless, ex-post information acquisition also provides the seller with greater acquisition incentive and occasionally makes him worse off than that in the ex-ante scenario. Thus, in a competitive environment, having the option of information acquisition and flexibility in its timing can be both detrimental and irresistible. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 63: 3–22, 2016

A Flexible Framework for Assessing the Quality of Information in Wireless Sensor Networks

As wireless sensor networks (WSNs) often provide incorrect and outdated information about the events in a monitored environment, quality of information (QoI) assessment is invaluable for users to manage and use the information in particular applications. In this paper, we propose a flexible framework to dynamically assess the QoI in different WSN applications, with focus on accuracy and timeliness. Our framework is constructed on the infrastructure of an information aggregation procedure under some assumptions about the network. Based on information fusion theory, two processing models are adopted to assess the accuracy of low-level measurement data and high-level decision information without the need for Ground Truth (GT). Meanwhile, our framework generally exploits two respective models according to the specific category of the information timeliness in different delay-sensitive applications. To quantify the timeliness, we utilize a practical measurement method by means of timestamp to determine the information acquisition time. The framework is evaluated by simulations, including accuracy assessment in two environmental monitoring application scenarios, and timeliness assessment in two delay-sensitive application scenarios. The simulation results show that our framework is effective and flexible for quantitative assessment of the QoI in different WSN applications.

A Six Sigma‐based method to renovate information services

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a Six Sigma‐based method to renovate library and information services with great emphasis on the information acquisition process.Design/methodology/approachThe paper conducts a case study into a corporate research library of a telecom company in Korea to identify and remove ineffective components and unnecessary steps in library works and services. Specifically, it uses Six Sigma's DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, and control) methodology to improve the process of purchasing overseas academic/scientific information and to enhance user satisfaction with information utilization.FindingsThe paper identifies 12 key factors, which have a great effect on information acquisition time and information utilization, and then proposes the improvement plans for those identified factors. Thanks to the successful implementation of Six Sigma, information acquisition time has been reduced from 25.9 days to 8.1 days, and the level of user satisfaction with information utilization has been greatly increased from 6.74 points to 8.46 points on the Likert scale.Originality/valueThis study is very meaningful in that it is the first attempt in Korea to apply Six Sigma to library and information services. In this work, Six Sigma has been applied only to an information purchase process, but can be extended to a variety of other library processes such as loan, cataloging, etc. for the purpose of raising the efficiency of library works and improving the quality of other information services.

Effect of Luminance and Text Size on Information Acquisition Time from Traffic Signs

Although visual performance was measured in terms of visual response time in many psychophysical studies, such an approach has not been used in evaluating the effect of luminance on traffic sign legibility performance. Traffic sign and retroreflective sign sheeting performance at night have been historically identified with the threshold (farthest) distance for legibility and in many cases from stationary vehicles with no restrictions on viewing time. Because traffic signs are not always read at threshold distances or threshold luminances and because the time available to read traffic signs is usually limited in the real world, a proper assessment of sign legibility performance requires determining information acquisition times above threshold conditions. This study investigated the effect of (legend) luminance and letter size on the information acquisition time and transfer accuracy from simulated traffic signs. Luminances ranged from 3.2 cd/m2 to 80 cd/m2 on positive-contrast textual traffic sign stimuli with contrast ratios of 6:1 and 10:1, positioned at 33 ft/in. and 40 ft/in. legibility indices, and viewed under conditions simulating a nighttime driving environment. The findings suggest that increasing the sign luminance significantly reduces the time to acquire information. Similarly, increasing the sign size (or reducing the legibility index) also reduces the information acquisition time. These findings suggest that larger and brighter signs are more efficient in transferring their message to the driver by reducing information acquisition time, or alternatively, by increasing the transfer accuracy. In return, reduced sign viewing durations and increased reading accuracy are likely to improve roadway safety.

A Question of Timing

Information acquisition and its use frequently are considered critical to the decision-making process, yet related research, especially about the timing of information acquisition, is limited. Our research explores the impact of information acquisition on perceived decision quality and on the time required to reach a decision on a fuzzy task. We found that more information was accessed from a Web-based system in the first part of the group decision-making process, when the decision environment was searched and possible courses of action were analyzed. We also found that the proportion of information accessed in the first part of the meeting was related significantly to the time required to make the decision. More specifically, when most information was accessed in the first part of the decision-making session, the relationship between decision time and amount of information accessed in the early part of the meeting was positive and linear. However, a curvilinear relationship was found between decision time and amount of information accessed in the latter part of the decision-making session. Unlike the findings of a previous study, this earlier access of information is not associated with improved perceived decision quality.

Information Acquisition Decisions and the Choice of Financial Year-Ends

In some industries the financial-year-ends of member firms are clustered together whereas in others they are more widely dispersed. This study attempts to provide an explanation for this phenomenon. Recognizing that financial-year-ends are not just the time when firms disclose information but also the time when they acquire information (when books are closed), we frame this study in the larger economic context of determining the optimal timing of information acquisition and release. Prior studies have examined the frequency with which firms acquire costly information. We address a question that follows naturally: given that information is acquired only once every t operating periods, when during the t period should such an exercise take place? We also examine a related question: do competing firms have any incentive to share the information acquisition burden? The results of our analysis indicate that firms' choice of their financial year-end may partially be driven by the degree of correlation between the firms' cost (and demand) parameters and the incentives to share the information acquisition burden. Duopolists that face random but permanent shocks to their linear cost (or demand) parameter every period, but who can collect information in only some of the periods, will choose identical year-ends (that which is dictated by the stochastic environment) unless their costs are very strongly correlated (almost close to 1). Only when their costs are highly correlated do the firms choose staggered year-ends. Whether year-ends are clustered or staggered are also shown to be a function of the differences in cost variances for the two firms.

The exchange of cost information between asymmetrically informed firms

The exchange of information among firms is a common occurrence, often done through the auspices of a trade association. This paper seeks to gain some insights on the formation of trade associations as information gathering and exchange mechanisms. First, an explicit expense attributed to information exchange is included. As the expense of exchanging cost information increases fewer types of firms desire to reveal their private information. Second, a thorough characterization of the timing of information acquisition and release is made. It is shown that firms prefer to know their own cost information before agreeing to exchange this information. Finally, it is demonstrated that when information exchange is made contingent upon all firms agreeing to exchange, complete information exchange can occur even if there is a positive cost incurred by the firms in forming a trade association.