IlliGAL Blogging

The DISCUS experiment continues with a firm pace. We have collected enough media survey questionnaires. After examining the questionnaires, Yuichi Washida has clustered the participants after his research achievements. In his own words on diffusion patterns of knowledge:

“Our arguments consist of two hypotheses: One is the difference of function by gender as a medium of knowledge diffusion in Japan's actual product market, while the other is the difference by generations. We found that certain generation and gender groups play important roles at the early stage of knowledge diffusion regarding new types of products with new technologies, which enable manufacturers to get effective feedback in creating and improving their products. We argue that the social network of this rapid and divergent feedback from the consumer side may explain why Japanese electronic manufacturers can realize high-quality products in short time periods.”

Questionnaires were grouped in four different clusters. The experiments that we will be conducting next week involve having enough representatives of each of those clusters. Scheduling people in groups, and making sure that they will be in, is a time consuming job---not to mention a tough scheduling issue.



The job has another added element of difficulty, the unbalanced distribution of participants among the different clusters. The board above shows the unbalanced distribution we face in two of the four clusters. Thus, for the success of the whole experiment, Chen-Ju Chao and Davina Lim---you can see them below---have been working hard to make sure that there are enough participants available from each cluster.