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There have always been concerns about task complexity and respondent burden in the context of stated choice (SC) studies, with calls to limit the number of alternatives, attributes and choice sets. At the same time, some researchers have also made the case that too simplistic a design might be counterproductive given that such designs may result in issues of omitting important decision variables. This paper aims to take another look at the effects of design complexity on model results. Specifically, we make use of an approach devised by Hensher (2004)¹ in which different respondents in the study are presented with designs of different complexity, and look specifically at effects on model scale in a UK context, adding to previous Chilean evidence by Caussade et al. (2005). The results of our study indicate that the impact of design complexity may be somewhat lower than anticipated, and that more complex designs may not necessarily lead to poorer results. In fact, some of the more complex designs lead to higher scale in the models. Overall, our findings suggest that respondents can cope adequately with large number of attributes, alternatives and choice sets. The implications for practical research are potentially significant, given the widespread use, especially in Europe, of stated choice designs with a limited number of alternatives and attributes.

A consumer survey of document delivery in academic settings was conducted using a conjoint analysis approach. During interviews with 79 randomly chosen faculty members and graduate students at three Ohio universities, respondents were each asked to answer hypothetical questions about ordering a desired article. Questions focused on ordering articles from a commercial document delivery service or through interlibrary loan. Factors such as the price of the document, the speed of delivery, and the method of ordering were varied from question to question. Survey results found the price of the document to be the most important consideration. Respondents also expressed more willingness to use interlibrary loan than a commercial service.

The purpose of this paper is to present a punctuality improvement method system and to show how it was developed for application in the railway industry.

The method is based on principles from quality management theory and developed through four cases: delayed departures from a freight‐terminal; delays caused by wheel damages at freight‐train cars; delays at a single track railway line; and delays created at a railway junction.

The result is a method called PIMS: Punctuality Improvement Method System. PIMS does especially focus on the coupling of results from quantitative analyses with experience‐based knowledge. It also focuses on the interaction between the improvement project and the base organizations.

The research and development work was performed by researchers from academia in cooperation with practitioners from the railway industry.

Punctuality is claimed to be one of the most important quality factors in railway operations and improvement of punctuality is therefore an objective in most railway companies. Punctuality depends on how all actors involved in railway operations perform, and cooperation and communication within and between railway organizations is therefore essential to achieve improvements.

In Norway, there was a lack of an established method describing how to organize and accomplish punctuality improvement work. Thus, the authors initiated a project to develop a coherent method to solve identified punctuality challenges. Through the cases, the method has proven its capability to generate feasible improvement measures and measurable punctuality improvements have been achieved.

This paper presents a case study examining delivery service preference of electronic commerce products. With the increasing of electronic commerce and home shopping market, parcel delivery service market has been growing annually by more than 10% in Korea. However, the quality of delivery service and profitability are gradually decreased due to the price competition. A survey conducted by Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed that nearly half of the respondents selected delivery accuracy and time as major factors in delivery service, implying that online consumers consider service factors such as delivery time more important rather than delivery cost. In this research, a stated preference survey with 16 scenarios was conducted for online consumers to examine delivery preference depending on the type and value of products that they purchased online. The analysis results show that online consumers have a willingness to pay extra cost for rapid delivery or want lower price although it is much slow. It implies that current uniformed delivery cost of online products can be differentiated with different prices for different consumers and products. In addition, the study shows that different online products have different value of time, 27 won per hour on average.

Stations have two main functions. The primary function of a station is to connect different modes quickly and easily with each other, this is when passengers are moving from one place to another. The secondary function is to make sure that passengers can spend their (waiting) time at a station in a pleasant way when they are staying at the station. Interchanges have to be designed to make moving as efficient as possible and staying as pleasant as possible. This means that users want a station where they can move safe, fast and easily and spend their time in a comfortable and pleasant way. The station experience can be enhanced with optimal (intuitive) wayfinding and environmental stimuli (e.g. music, light, colours, infotainment and advertisements) that can turn a transport interchange into an efficient node and a positive unique place. In this chapter, we explain how the quality of stations can be improved.

Examines the fifthteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.