Driven mechanisms of board commitment: A modified corporate CANE model

The study employs a sample of US S&P 100 firms to explore the driving factors affecting the level of board commitment. We modified Clark’s (1998) CANE model and developed a corporate CANE model that is applicable for board commitment. Supporting our model, we find that primary drivers of board commitment (through board personal agency) are non-financial factors including board independence, size, gender diversity, professional experience/skills, industrial and financial experiences, senior executives' compensation, and strictly board independence. These board compositions significantly enhance the level of board commitment, except the board size. On the other hand, whilst we find significant impact for the market-based factors, i.e. board commitment level tends to increase with market value (Tobin's Q), we find weak or no evidence on the effects of accounting-based factors. This suggests that the board task value is influenced by the actual perception of the market participants rather than ‘documented’ figures.     

Temptation and Self‐Control

We study a two‐period model where ex ante inferior choice may tempt the decision‐maker in the second period. Individuals have preferences over sets of alternatives that represent second period choices. Our axioms yield a representation that identifies the individual's commitment ranking, temptation ranking, and cost of self‐control. An agent has a preference for commitment if she strictly prefers a subset of alternatives to the set itself. An agent has self‐control if she resists temptation and chooses an option with higher ex ante utility. We introduce comparative measures of preference for commitment and self‐control and relate them to our representations.     

Contracting with Imperfect Commitment and the Revelation Principle: The Single Agent Case

This paper extends the revelation principle to environments in which the mechanism designer cannot fully commit to the outcome induced by the mechanism. We show that he may optimally use a direct mechanism under which truthful revelation is an optimal strategy for the agent. In contrast with the conventional revelation principle, however, the agent may not use this strategy with probability one. Our results apply to contracting problems between a principal and a single agent. By reducing such problems to well‐defined programming problems they provide a basic tool for studying imperfect commitment.     

Serving two masters: Commitment profiles of employees in the German military reserve

Research on commitment has highlighted the importance of understanding multiple commitments to similar objects, and there is a desire to clarify the attendant complex interactions by applying a person-centred approach to commitment. Although there is a rich body of knowledge on commitment, questions regarding possible conflicts among the various types of commitment remain unanswered. Specifically, we know little about the effects of commitment to objects with similar characteristics (e.g. organizations) across domains (e.g. civil vs military). We draw on a sample of individuals in the German military reserve (N = 303) who serve voluntarily as soldiers in the armed forces and parallel work in civil organizations. We test hypotheses regarding the presence of different commitment profiles. We identified five commitment profiles and evidence for both within- and cross-domain effects of the antecedents and outcomes of commitment.     

Attachment insecurities and under-commitment in distressed couples: The role of positive and negative partner behaviors

Research has rarely considered intermediate variables in the association between attachment insecurities and relationship commitment. Based on attachment theory and Rusbult's Investment Model, we tested whether positive and negative partner behaviors explain this association in 91 distressed couples undergoing therapy. Path analyses based on the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model revealed that individuals with attachment avoidance reported perceiving fewer positive behaviors from their partner, which was associated with their own higher under-commitment. Partners of individuals with avoidance also reported perceiving fewer positive partner behaviors, which was in turn associated with their own higher under-commitment. Partners of individuals with attachment anxiety perceived more positive behaviors from their partner, which was associated to their own lower under-commitment. Perceived negative partner behaviors were only directly associated with higher under-commitment. These findings imply that perceived positive partner behaviors may be a key aspect to target in relationship therapy in couples who present with high attachment insecurities.     

高职英语教学中的“感性”因素——浅谈英语教学中师生间的情感沟通

在高职英语教学中,感性因素越来越受到广大教师的关注.文章探讨了感性因素在英语教学中的作用以及教师应如何针对这些因素发挥自己的关键作用.教师不仪要为学生提供可理解的语言输人,而且要注重学生的情感因素,采用多种方法,尽可能创造一种轻松、愉快、积极的环境,尊重、关爱学生,从而帮助学生提高学习效率,克分发挥其学习潜能.     

种子开源的缘起、现实价值与实践模式

种子开源是开源运动在育种领域的延伸，旨在实现植物生产、育种、繁殖和分配过程中种质和技术的自由使用，以克服知识产权排他性保护对育种创新的负面影响。种子开源秉承自由、开放与共享的理念，其并非否定知识产权，也不意味着免费或没有限制和责任。防止种质资源私有化、育种创新的累积性以及种子和软件的共通性是开源运动延伸至育种领域的主要原因。种子开源具有整合育种资源、促进育种创新、保障国家粮食安全的现实价值。从域外实践看，种子开源大体可分为道德承诺、开源许可证和农民合作三种模式。在强调育种原始创新，突破种源“卡脖子”技术的当下，可尝试在受财政资金资助的高校及科研机构中推行许可证开源模式，同时鼓励其他育种者和农民加入，以促进育种创新，实现种业可持续发展。     

Examining links between affective empathy,cognitive empathy,and peer relationships at the transition to school

The current study aimed to (i) examine associations across features of affective and cognitive empathy, and (ii) explore their independent role for children's peer relationships at the transition to school. Affective empathy was measured using both observations of children's facial affect during an empathy-eliciting event and dispositional affective empathy to peer distress via teacher report. Cognitive empathy was measured using an index of children's proclivity to engage in perspective taking when witnessing the distress of another. Children's theory of mind was also assessed given close links with cognitive empathy. Participants were 114 Australian children (M_age = 67 months, SD = 5 months) assessed across two sessions during their first year of formal schooling. Findings showed that features of children's affective and cognitive empathy were unrelated, but both showed independent associations with children's positive peer relationships (assessed via peer-reported social preference and teacher-rated peer social maturity). The current study provides support for the delineation between features of affective and cognitive empathy in early school-age children, and the importance of understanding both affective and cognitive empathy for children's peer relationships at the transition to school. These findings have implications how we understand both the nature of empathy in childhood and the role it plays in supporting children's positive peer relationships.