Deconstructing the silences: gay social memory

Adopting a Foucaultian perceptive, this article deconstructs the silences in the Singaporean gay community. The collective absences in homosexuals' social memory is not simply reflective of a fragmented community, but must be comprehended in relation to the role of the state and media in shaping particular discourses.     

The Newsvendor Model with Consumer Search Costs

We study the newsvendor problem when consumers are heterogeneous either in their valuations of the newsvendor's product, in their valuations of an outside option available to them, or in both valuations. In this context, we observe that the outside option, which represents the value that a given consumer associates with choosing not to purchase the newsvendor's product, may be interpreted as a search cost. Taking into consideration whether consumers' valuations differ on either one dimension of heterogeneity or on both dimensions, we develop a framework for classifying newsvendor models that incorporate demand‐management effects. In particular, we show that this framework includes both the newsvendor model with price‐dependent demand and the newsvendor model with endogenous demand as special cases. In addition to making a conceptual contribution by developing and drawing insights from this framework, we make technical contributions by providing more general sufficient conditions under which the underlying optimization problems are well behaved.     

Two-sample tests and tests of fit

There is a close analogy between the problems of testing the hypothesis that two samples come from the same continuous population (the two-sample problem) and testing the hypothesis that a single sample comes from a completely specified continuous distribution (a test of fit problem). In an earlier paper, asymptotic distribution theory was developed for the test of fit problem, under both the hypothesis being tested and interesting alternatives. In this paper, essentially the same asymptotic theory is shown to hold for the two-sample problem. Applications are given.     

On the relational motive for volunteer work

While economists have mainly focused on investment or altruistic motives to explain why people undertake volunteer activities, we rely instead in this paper on the relational motive previously emphasized by social psychologists. Volunteering is seen as a way to build friendly relationships. Drawing on the French survey Vie Associative conducted by INSEE in 2002 on volunteer work and association membership, we shed light on the relevance of this relational motive using two samples of, respectively, 1578 volunteers and 2631 participants in associations. According to their own statements, many volunteers seek to make friends and to meet other people through these activities. Econometric results show that working as a volunteer in an association has a causal impact on the probability of making friends in that association, which also supports the relational motive.     

A decision support system for optimising the order fulfilment process

Many authors have highlighted gaps at the interfaces between supply chains (SCs) and demand chains. Generally, the latter tends primarily to be ‘agile’ by maximising effectiveness and responsiveness while the former tends to be ‘lean’ by maximising efficiency. When, in the SC, disruptions (that lead to stock-out situations) occur after customer orders have been accepted, managers are faced with the problem of maximising customer satisfaction while taking into consideration the conflicting objectives of the supply and demand sides of the order fulfilment process. This article proposes a cross-functional multi-criteria decision-making (advanced available-to-promise) tool that provides different strategic options from which a solution can be chosen. It also proposes a performance measurement system to support the decision-making and improvement process. The results of some experimental tests show that the model enables to make strategic decisions on the degree of flexibility required to achieve the desired level of customer service.     

Predisposition to seek mental health care among Black males transitioning from foster care

This study examined the predisposition to seek mental health care in the future for personal and mental health problems among Black males transitioning from the foster care system (n=74). Results of simultaneous multiple regression analysis showed that custody status, diagnosis of a DSM-IV psychiatric disorder, and emotional control contributed significantly to the prediction of Black male's predisposition to seek mental health care. Specifically, Black males who were still in foster care were more predisposed to seek mental health care, whereas those diagnosed with a DSM-IV psychiatric disorder and who adhered more to the norm of emotional control were less predisposed to seek mental health care. Implications for mental health service delivery are discussed.     

The semiotics of language ideologies in Singapore1

As an ethnically and linguistically diverse society, Singapore has had to grapple with the problem of how to manage this diversity across a range of contexts, thus making it a particularly interesting case study for language ideologies. This paper examines three particular cases taken from the history of Singapore's language policy. In the first situation, the policy remains largely unchanged, varying only in its lexical and textual realizations; in the second, performances in the service of a set of ideologies give rise to potentially serious problems; and in the third, the material consequences of implementing the ideologies lead to changes in the ideologies themselves. By drawing on recent theoretical developments in the study of language ideologies, this paper shows how attention to the sitedness of language ideologies can help provide greater specification and appreciation of the interactional processes by which the ideologies are instantiated.