Grazing,exploring and networking for sustainability-oriented innovations in learning-action networks: an SME perspective

With sustainability-oriented innovations (SOIs) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can conquer niche markets, cut resource usage and improve the quality of life. SMEs follow different strategic orientations for SOIs. They are conditioned by their organizational structures, capabilities and interaction with the business, regulatory and knowledge network. Usually, SMEs find it easier to span their boundaries to the business network. This research explores, in a longitudinal multi-case study, how the interaction with the knowledge network can condition an SME's strategic orientation. In the analysis of a learning-action network established by a research institute, three network-patterns (grazer, explorer and networker) are observed which result from different SME boundary-spanning processes. A central role is played by the boundary spanners who influence to which degree the SME can build up exploratory and exploitative learning capabilities to further deploy, push forward or generically develop its strategic orientation for SOIs in interaction with the knowledge network.     

Connecting People – Renewing Power Relations? A Research Review on the Use of Mobile Phones

The paper discusses how the power perspective has been considered and discussed in qualitative social studies on the use of mobile phones in practices at home, work and public places. Some themes relevant from the aspect of power negotiations were extrapolated from the reviewed literature: constant availability at home and work, and the mobile phone as a public status symbol in respect to its design and use in space, time, and social surroundings. The review also aims to show how social variables affecting the adoption and use of the mobile phone have so far been analyzed in research. The writers conclude that mobile phones have been interpreted to reproduce and renew traditional power hierarchies. Still, more nuanced research is needed to understand the micro‐mechanisms of power in the socio‐cultural contexts of the use of mobile phones.     

Omnibus or not: package bills and single-issue bills in a legislative bargaining game

Legislators sometimes pass unrelated issues in one bill with one vote (omnibus bills), but they often vote separately on different issues as well. In this article, a model is considered in which the first mover chooses whether to bargain over an omnibus bill or several separate bills. The main difference between the two types of bills is that trade-offs between issues are possible with omnibus bills, but not with separate bills. The underlying bargaining game is demand-bargaining (Morelli 1999). In this game, moderate legislators prefer to propose single-issue bills; extreme legislators prefer omnibus bills, if the asymmetry in policy ideal points in the legislature is large enough.     

Variations in the gender composition of immigrant populations: how they matter

This paper estimates and interprets empirical shifts in the gender composition of immigrants to add to scholarship about the gendering of international migrations over time. We map shifts in gender ratios using micro-level data that permit us to create age-standardized estimates among adult foreign born stock living in the United States since 1850 and in 26 other nations worldwide since 1960. We examine regional and national variations in these shifts, and ask whether and how the gendered composition of foreigners from diverse origins in the United States – the nation that has received the largest populations of migrants for over a century – differs from other nations that receive large numbers of immigrants. We also examine recent variations in gender ratios among immigrants living in six regional destination countries. Results show substantial variation in the gender composition of foreign-born populations, and they offer a starting point for examining causes and consequences in future research.     

Project Time in Silicon Valley

This article explores the pace of work for highly skilled workers who are employed in the high-tech industry of Silicon Valley. I link the temporal experiences of these workers to systems of domination at work, and to the particular characteristics of flexible specialization in the region. I ask four questions: How can the temporal rhythms of work be described? What factors shape these rhythms? Why do workers comply? How does this pace of work impact on other aspects of individuals' lives? I focus on the organization of work through project cycles, the de-linking of workers and organizations, and the ideology of individualism that constructs workers as entrepreneurs of their own careers as key factors that shape the erratic and quickened pace of work in Silicon Valley. I also show how this pace of work negatively affects other temporal spheres that individuals negotiate, most notably “bodily time” and the “interaction time” of social relationships.

     

The Effects of Simultaneous Developmental Processes: Factors Relating to the Career Development of Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Youth

C. Hetherington (1991) hypothesized that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents may experience a “bottleneck effect” in career development because of internal psychological energy focusing on issues surrounding sexual identity. This assertion has not yet been tested, however, in the career development literature. The authors examined the relationship between variables indicative of psychological resources being devoted to managing an LGB identity, social support, and career development. Survey data from 102 LGB youth demonstrated that inner sexual identity conflict and social support predicted unique and shared variance in career maturity and vocational indecision, lending empirical support to the bottleneck hypothesis.     

EFFECTS OF A FAMILY-ORIENTED TRAINING EXPERIENCE ON THE ROLE OF THE PHYSICAL THERAPIST

This article describes ways in which a family-oriented psychologist contributed to a reconceptualization of the appropriate role for the physical therapist in patient care. The article identifies aspects of the changing role of the physical therapist, specifically its expansion to include skilled psychosocial interaction with patient and family for the purposes of reassurance, support and instruction. A primary shift involved changing from focus on the individual and his or her disability to focus on the patient in the context of his or her family. The article briefly describes elements of appropriate psychological training which can be incorporated successfully in a physical therapy educational experience, and concludes with a case example illustrating the basic points relevant to this type of interdisciplinary collaboration.     

Social and health‐care priorities of local politicians in Finland: do the attitudes of politicians reflect the actual processes in municipalities?

The aim of this study was to find out whether elected politicians' attitudes influence policy-making processes in terms of social and health-care resource allocation. A preliminary hypothesis was developed on the basis of previous empirical findings on the attitudes of politicians. If health-care costs decreased during the period 1993–1999, then secondary care costs should have increased and vice versa; if the total amount of resources increased, then secondary care must have been allocated fewer resources. However, the results of this study showed that the actual resource-allocation processes did not reflect the attitudes of local politicians. Expenditure on secondary health care increased during this period, while primary health-care services were allocated fewer resources. Analysing the actual decision-making processes rather than investigating attitudes to priority setting may prove more useful in gaining a better understanding of priority-setting processes and the mechanisms used in different contexts.     

Stereological Modelling of Random Particles

Stochastic models for three-dimensional particles have many applications in applied sciences. Lévy–based particle models are a flexible approach to particle modelling. The structure of the random particles is given by a kernel smoothing of a Lévy basis. The models are easy to simulate but statistical inference procedures have not yet received much attention in the literature. The kernel is not always identifiable and we suggest one approach to remedy this problem. We propose a method to draw inference about the kernel from data often used in local stereology and study the performance of our approach in a simulation study.