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Problem definition: Disputes on online labor platforms have traditionally been mediated by the platform itself, which is often viewed as unhelpful or biased. However, there are emerging platforms that promise to resolve disputes with a novel tribunal system and relegate dispute resolution to individual platform users through a voting mechanism. We aim to examine the dispute resolution systems used by traditional platforms (i.e., the centralized dispute system) and emerging platforms (i.e., the decentralized dispute system) in order to assess whether the latter has an advantage over the former. Methodology/results: We use game theory to analyze both the centralized and decentralized dispute systems, and we model the tribunal's voting game using the global games framework. Our findings indicate that in order to achieve a fair voting outcome, it is crucial to have sufficient heterogeneity in the assessments of tribunal members. Moreover, the decentralized dispute system outperforms the centralized dispute system only when the freelancer's skill level is sufficiently high. Lastly, the decentralized dispute system has the potential to induce a more socially optimal quality level from the freelancer. Managerial implications: Our findings provide insights on the optimal adoption and implementation of the decentralized dispute system. The decentralized dispute system is more effective for tasks that involve subjective evaluations, and platforms should avoid strategies that homogenize the assessments of tribunal members. Moreover, platforms should consider switching to the decentralized dispute system only if they are able to verify the skill level of freelancers through certification or other means. Lastly, the decentralized dispute system may be more appealing to policy makers because of its potential to induce a more socially optimal outcome. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0398. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, magnetic and structural properties of near-equiatomic CoPt thin films, which exhibited a high coercivity in the film-normal direction-suitable for perpendicular magnetic recording media applications-are reported. The films exhibited a larger coercivity of about 6.5 kOe at 8 nm. The coercivity showed a monotonous decrease as the film thickness was increased. The transmission electron microscopy images indicated that the as fabricated CoPt film generally consists of a stack of magnetically hard hexagonal-close-packed phase, followed by stacking faults and face-centred-cubic phase. The thickness dependent magnetic properties are explained on the basis of exchange-coupled composite media. Epitaxial growth on Ru layers is a possible factor leading to the unusual observation of magnetically hard hcp-phase at high concentrations of Pt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New methodology to obtain reliable correlation between magnetic cluster details measured using magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and noise in perpendicular recording media is reported. In addition to the ac demagnetized state, which is often studied by several researchers, magnetic clusters were examined at two other magnetic states of the recording medium to obtain details on thermally unstable and relatively nonreversible clusters that would increase noise and bit-error rates. The proposed method was employed to study magnetic clusters of media samples fabricated at different conditions. Measurements on various samples demonstrated that the MFM can be used to understand the thermally unstable and irreversible clusters in a perpendicular recording medium. A direct correlation between the signal-to-noise ratio of the medium measured using spin-stand and magnetic cluster details from MFM images is obtained. The trend can also be used to understand and distinguish the source of noise (such as writing issues or the media microstructure issues). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]