A simple model of corporate international investment under incomplete information and taxes

This paper extends the theory of corporate international investment in Choi (J. Int. Bus. Stud. 20: 145–155, 1989) in an environment where the segmentation of international capital markets for investors or the presence of agency costs provide some independence to corporate decisions. The model shows that the real exchange risk, the competition between firms in different markets and diversification gains affect corporate international investment. By accounting for the role of information as defined in the models of Merton (J. Finance 42: 483–510, 1987), Bellalah (Int. J. Finance Econ. 6: 59–67, 2001a) and Bellalah and Wu (Int. J. Theor. Appl. Finance 5(5): 479–495, 2002), the model embodies different existing explanations based on economic and behavioral variables. We show in a “two-country” firm model that real exchange risk, diversification motives and information costs are important elements in the determination of corporate international investment decisions. The dynamic portfolio model reflects the main results in several theories of foreign direct investment. Our model accounts for the role of information in explaining foreign investments. It provides simple explanations which are useful in explaining the home bias puzzle in international finance. Using the dynamical programming principle method, we provide the general solution for the proportion of firm’s total capital budget. We also use a new method to get explicit solutions in some special cases. This new method can be applied to solve other financial control problems. The simulating results are given to show our conclusion and the influence of some parameters to the optimal solution. The economic results can be seen as a generalization of the model in Solnik (J. Econ. Theory 8: 500–524, 1974).     

Rough intuitionistic fuzzy information systems

In this paper, we consider the notion of rough intuitionistic fuzzy sets and study their properties. We present an extension of rough set theory with the concept of intuitionistic fuzzy sets with several properties given. Moreover, we discuss the knowledge reduction of the classical Pawlak information systems and the intuitionistic fuzzy information systems, respectively.     

Homomorphisms between fuzzy information systems

The information system is one of the most important mathematical models in the field of artificial intelligence, and the concept of mapping is a useful tool for studying the communication between two information systems. In this work, the concepts of fuzzy relation mapping and inverse fuzzy relation mapping are first introduced and their properties are studied. Then, the notions of homomorphisms of information systems based on fuzzy relations are proposed, and it is proved that attribute reductions in the original system and image system are equivalent to each other under the condition of homomorphism.     

Properties of topologies of information retrieval systems

This paper studies topological properties of different topologies that are possible on the space of documents as they are induced by queries in a query space together with a similarity function between queries and documents. The main topologies studied here are the retrieval topology (introduced by Everett and Cater) and the similarity topology (introduced by Egghe and Rousseau).The studied properties are the separation properties T₀, T₁, and T₂ (Hausdorff), proximity and connectedness. Full characterizations are given for the diverse topologies to be T₀, T₁, or T₂. It is shown that the retrieval topology is not necessarily a proximity space, while the similarity topology and the pseudo-metric topology always are proximity spaces. A characterization of connectedness in terms of the Boolean NOT-operator is given, hereby showing the intimate relationship between IR and topology.     

Homomorphisms between fuzzy information systems revisited

Recently, Wang et al. discussed the properties of fuzzy information systems under homomorphisms in the work [C. Wang, D. Chen, L. Zhu, Homomorphisms between fuzzy information systems, Appl. Math. Lett. 22 (2009) 1045–1050], where homomorphisms are based upon the concepts of consistent functions and fuzzy relation mappings. In this work, we classify consistent functions as predecessor-consistent and successor-consistent, and then proceed to present more properties of consistent functions. In addition, we improve some characterizations of fuzzy relation mappings provided in the above cited work.     

Automated classification and recognition information systems

Operating principles, situation classes, and problem formalization are examined in automated informational classification (and recognition) systems (ICS and IRS). The structure of the mentioned systems is proposed, problem criteria in the IRS are extracted, on whose basis classes of solvable problems are determined. The situation classes occurring during user interaction with the IRS are represented by tables.Translated from Dinamicheskie Sistemy, No. 4, pp. 96–101, 1985.     

Quantity of information; comparison between information systems: 2. Fuzzy states

In statistical theory, experiments or probabilistic information systems are supposed to be informative, since they reduce the amount of uncertainty associated with the states of nature. For the case that the available information systems are vague (fuzzy information systems), H. Tanaka, T. Okuda and K. Asai have proven, using the ‘measure of information’ as provided by ‘entropy’, that the fuzzy information systems are informative too.Now, we wish to state and to study a criterion in order to compare fuzzy information systems by the ‘quantity of information of a fuzzy information system’ (defined by Tanaka et al.).In the first paper we considered the situation where we require information about the original state space (non-fuzzy state space).This second paper deals with the situation where we require only information on certain vague states (fuzzy states).     

Quantity of information; Comparison between information systems: 1. Non-fuzzy states

In statistical theory, experiments or probabilistic information systems are supposed to be informative, since they reduce the amount of uncertainty associated with the states of nature. For the case that the available information systems are vague (fuzzy information systems), H. Tanaka, T. Okuda and K. Asai have proven, using the ‘measure of information’ as provided by ‘entropy’, that the fuzzy information systems are informative too.Now, we wish to state and to study a criterion in order to compare fuzzy information systems by the ‘quantity of information of a fuzzy information system’ (defined by Tanaka et al.).In this first paper we consider the situation where we require information about the original state space (non-fuzzy state space).The second paper will deal with the situation where we require only information on certain vague states (fuzzy states).     

The design of colliery information and control systems

The paper is concerned with describing an investigation of information usage in the control of colliery operations. The premise of the work is that to make the most of new information retrieval technology currently being installed in collieries research in needed to provide compatible advances in methods of information usage. The approach adopted was to construct a continuous simulation model using system dynamics capable of providing a laboratory assessment of alternative managerial control policies based on alternative sources and levels of aggregation of information.The model developed represents a typical colliery situation composed of three working coal-faces and incorporating planning, production, development and manpower sectors. The face sectors transform coal reserves to mined coal output, under manpower constraints and geological shocks, and these are all interlinked by means of allocation policies for manpower and machine shifts.A range of policies for the exercise of control through these allocations are considered subject to a range of shocks. It is concluded that, although there are difficulties in designing single policies which are universally best, there are clear advantages associated with fully integrated colliery policies based on information inputs from all aspects of the operations.     

Some results on information properties of coherent systems

This paper considers information properties of coherent systems when component lifetimes are independent and identically distributed. Some results on the entropy of coherent systems in terms of ordering properties of component distributions are proposed. Moreover, various sufficient conditions are given under which the entropy order among systems as well as the corresponding dual systems hold. Specifically, it is proved that under some conditions, the entropy order among component lifetimes is preserved under coherent system formations. The findings are based on system signatures as a useful measure from comparison purposes. Furthermore, some results on the system's entropy are derived when lifetimes of components are dependent and identically distributed. Several illustrative examples are also given.     

The effect of information on queue-scalping service systems

We consider an M/M/1 queueing system with a single queue scalper who makes profit by selling his position in the queue. The equilibrium purchasing strategies of customers under observable case (with double-threshold strategy) and unobservable case (with mixed strategy) are derived. The profits of the queue scalper are obtained under two information levels. Numerical experiments suggest that the queue scalper is better off with unobservable case when the system is too congested or the operating cost is too low.     

Some approaches to the theory of information systems

A formal method for performing systems analysis of information systems in business and elsewhere is needed in order to save systems work and programming and to obtain better systems.For organization and handling of information and data a formal procedure based on graph-theoretic concepts is described. It is shown that data transport in the system is determined by file volumes and the systems topology and expressed by the topological transport factor. The quality of the system design can be measured by its transport factor and the relation of this to the topological transport factor.On this basis future development of algorithms for minimal data transport and of standard lists for file contents and typical transport factors are expected. Much of the systems analysis and synthesis work can then be done by computers.It is also shown how the organization of file records is determined by the systems network.     

On the class of restricted linear information systems

In the paper the class of restricted linear information systems is described completely. For decision tables over each such information system there exist low upper bounds on minimal complexity of decision trees and polynomial algorithms of decision tree optimization for various complexity measures. A corollary connected with combinatorial geometry is considered.     

Evaluating cost taxonomies for information systems management

The consideration of costs, benefits and risks underpin many Information System (IS) evaluation decisions. Yet, vendors and project-champions alike tend to identify and focus much of their effort on the benefits achievable from the adoption of new technology, as it is often not in the interest of key stakeholders to spend too much time considering the wider cost and risk implications of enterprise-wide technology adoptions. In identifying a void in the literature, the authors of the paper present a critical analysis of IS-cost taxonomies. In doing so, the authors establish that such cost taxonomies tend to be esoteric and difficult to operationalize, as they lack specifics in detail. Therefore, in developing a deeper understanding of IS-related costs, the authors position the need to identify, control and reduce IS-related costs within the information systems evaluation domain, through culminating and then synthesizing the literature into a frame of reference that supports the evaluation of information systems through a deeper understanding of IS-cost taxonomies. The paper then concludes by emphasizing that the total costs associated with IS-adoption can only be determined after having considered the multi-faceted dimensions of information system investments.     

Partial information systems and the Smyth powerdomain

The dual of the join semilattice of proper compact Scott open subsets of a domain D is called the Smyth powerdomain of D. The Smyth powerdomain is used in programming semantics as a model for demonic nondeterminism. In this paper, we introduce the concept of partial information systems; and, as an application, show that the Smyth powerdomain of any domain can be realized in terms of the sub partial information systems of the domain??s corresponding information system.