Inquiry

The following interview with Dr. Les Roberts, Director of Health Policy at The International Rescue Committee (IRC), was conducted in May 2002. Previously, Dr. Roberts worked for WHO during the Rwandan Civil War of 1994 and at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, both in the Refugee Health Unit and at the National Center for Environmental Health.     

Who Reads Catholic Newspapers? Exploring Readership in a Changing Industry

Newspapers published by Roman Catholic dioceses represent a large and unexplored part of the religious publishing industry. This study attempts to shed light on the challenges these publications face by examining the readership of a diocesan newspaper in a large Catholic diocese in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Based on a comprehensive survey of 24,278 Roman Catholic households from 27 parishes throughout the diocese, this study finds a large gap in readership and engagement between older and younger readers, raising important strategic and pastoral questions for the newspaper in the years to come.     

Interviewing Herbert Blumer

In March of 1982, I interviewed Blumer about doing field research with Symbolic Interactionist ideas. I was teaching a course on that topic at UC Santa Cruz. After Herb discussed the field work issues, he turned to his biography and early life.     

The determinacy of the regression factor score predictor based on continuous parameter estimates from categorical variables

The estimation of population parameters of the continuous common factor model from categorical observed variables is meanwhile regularly performed. It is shown that the formula for the calculation of the determinacy of the regression factor score predictor from the estimated model parameters has to be adapted under these conditions. A method for the calculation of this determinacy from the model parameters of the continuous population factor model based on categorical variables is proposed and evaluated by means of simulated population data. It turns out that using the uncorrected formula can lead to serious overestimation of determinacy for categorical variables.     

What innovation managers really do: a multiple-case investigation into the informal role profiles of innovation managers

Over the last fifteen years companies tended to formalise their innovation management activities and to establish formal jobs like the innovation officer, the network manager or the innovation manager. Knowledge of the informal role profiles of these formal roles is still rare. HR and R&D Managers do not know which informal role profile might suit them best, thus having difficulties to assign the best candidates for jobs in innovation management. Researchers cannot help to resolve the problem. Our research answers the question what innovation managers really do, by analysing their tasks, skills and traits, theoretically based on informal role theories. Furthermore, we will analyse how these characteristics change with company size. To provide answers to our research questions we choose a multiple-case study approach. We found, among others, that innovation managers fulfil the role of the relationship and process promotor or a combination of both with the champion, but we also found, that the innovation manager’s roles profile becomes fuzzier with shrinking company size. Our results have practical implications for top management and also HR and R&D managers, enabling them to better select and steer employees in innovation management. Researchers will be able to build on our results because we offer a comprehensive understanding of the informal role profiles of innovation managers based on informal role theories.     

The Development of Rational Imitation in 9‐ and 12‐Month‐Old Infants

Studies on rational imitation have provided evidence for the fact that infants as young as 12 months of age engage in rational imitation. However, the developmental onset of this ability is unclear. In this study, we investigated whether 9‐ and 12‐month‐olds detect voluntary and implicit as well as nonvoluntary and explicit constraints in the head touch task. Three groups of infants watched video sequences, which displayed a person illuminating a lamp using the head. The hands of the model were either free, occupied by voluntarily holding a blanket, or nonvoluntarily restrained by being tied to the table. An additional control group of infants watched the model turning on the lamp by using the hand. Given that the majority of infants imitated the head touch when the model's hands were free, there was evidence for rational imitation in comparison to the condition in which the model's hands were tied to the table, but not in comparison to the condition in which the hands were occupied by holding a blanket. Nine‐month‐olds showed no differences in their behavior according to the condition. These findings clarify the onset of rational imitation by showing that 12‐month‐olds (but not 9‐month‐olds) take into account a situational constraint only when the constraint is nonvoluntary and explicit.     

Recent and classical goodness-of-fit tests for the Poisson distribution

We give a critical synopsis of classical and recent tests for Poissonity, our emphasis being on procedures which are consistent against general alternatives. Two classes of weighted Cramér–von Mises type test statistics, based on the empirical probability generating function process, are studied in more detail. Both of them generalize already known test statistics by introducing a weighting parameter, thus providing more flexibility with regard to power against specific alternatives. In both cases, we prove convergence in distribution of the statistics under the null hypothesis in the setting of a triangular array of rowwise independent and identically distributed random variables as well as consistency of the corresponding test against general alternatives. Therefore, a sound theoretical basis is provided for the parametric bootstrap procedure, which is applied to obtain critical values in a large-scale simulation study. Each of the tests considered in this study, when implemented via the parametric bootstrap method, maintains a nominal level of significance very closely, even for small sample sizes. The procedures are applied to four well-known data sets.     

Invariant structures of prognosis curves in Forrester's World Dynamics

This paper deals with some results of various simulations with Forrester's World Dynamics. These simulations concern the temporal and quantitative fixing of limits in relation to initial values and deal with the effects of specific table functions in this model. In addition, they also treat the behavior of the curves in approaching the limits.