Path to “Stardom” in Globally Distributed Hybrid Teams: An Examination of a Knowledge‐Centered Perspective using Social Network Analysis

Although distributed teams have been researched extensively in information systems and decision science disciplines, a review of the literature suggests that the dominant focus has been on understanding the factors affecting performance at the team level. There has however been an increasing recognition that specific individuals within such teams are often critical to the team's performance. Consequently, existing knowledge about such teams may be enhanced by examining the factors that affect the performance of individual team members. This study attempts to address this need by identifying individuals who emerge as “stars” in globally distributed teams involved in knowledge work such as information systems development (ISD). Specifically, the study takes a knowledge‐centered view in explaining which factors lead to “stardom” in such teams. Further, it adopts a social network approach consistent with the core principles of structural/relational analysis in developing and empirically validating the research model. Data from U.S.–Scandinavia self‐managed “hybrid” teams engaged in systems development were used to deductively test the proposed model. The overall study has several implications for group decision making: (i) the study focuses on stars within distributed teams, who play an important role in shaping group decision making, and emerge as a result of a negotiated/consensual decision making within egalitarian teams; (ii) an examination of emergent stars from the team members’ point of view reflects the collective acceptance and support dimension decision‐making contexts identified in prior literature; (iii) finally, the study suggests that the social network analysis technique using relational data can be a tool for a democratic decision‐making technique within groups.     

Optimal payment time under permissible delay in payment for products with deterioration

A permissible credit period is usually allowed to a retailer to pay back the dues without paying any interest to the supplier. The retailer can pay the supplier either at the end of the credit period or later incurring interest charges on the unpaid balance for the overdue period. The retailer is expected to settle the account at a time before the end of the inventory cycle time because the payable interest rate is generally higher than the earned interest rate. A model for optimal cycle and payment times is developed here for a retailer in a deteriorating-item inventory situation where a supplier allows a specified credit period to the retailer for payment without penalty. Under these conditions, this supplier-and-retailer system is modelled as a cost minimization problem to determine the optimal payment time under various system parameters. An iterative search procedure is applied to solve the problem, and the overall findings indicate that the retailer always has an option to pay after the permissible credit period depending on unit purchase and selling price, the deterioration rate of the products and the interest rate.     

The Emerging Perspective of Governance and Poverty Alleviation: A Case of Bangladesh

The majority of the rural people in the developing world are subject to severe poverty, inequality and unemployment. Over the years, a number of institutional approaches have been experimented to eradicate poverty from society. Despite the historical role accorded to the state, the states in many developing countries have not been quite effective in poverty alleviation. Following the global trends many developing country states have created space for the market forces and civil society organizations to contribute to poverty alleviation. This is what is popularly known as the new perspective of governance. This article intends to analyze the new perspective of governance and its role in poverty alleviation with empirical evidence from Bangladesh.

Maximum Likelihood Estimators in Regression Models for Error‐prone Group Testing Data

Since Dorfman's seminal work on the subject, group testing has been widely adopted in epidemiological studies. In Dorfman's context of detecting syphilis, group testing entails pooling blood samples and testing the pools, as opposed to testing individual samples. A negative pool indicates all individuals in the pool free of syphilis antigen, whereas a positive pool suggests one or more individuals carry the antigen. With covariate information collected, researchers have considered regression models that allow one to estimate covariate‐adjusted disease probability. We study maximum likelihood estimators of covariate effects in these regression models when the group testing response is prone to error. We show that, when compared with inference drawn from individual testing data, inference based on group testing data can be more resilient to response misclassification in terms of bias and efficiency. We provide valuable guidance on designing the group composition to alleviate adverse effects of misclassification on statistical inference.     

A covariance-based test for shared frailty in multivariate lifetime data

We decompose the score statistic for testing for shared finite variance frailty in multivariate lifetime data into marginal and covariance-based terms. The null properties of the covariance-based statistic are derived in the context of parametric lifetime models. Its non-null properties are estimated using simulation and compared with those of the score test and two likelihood ratio tests when the underlying lifetime distribution is Weibull. Some examples are used to illustrate the covariance-based test. A case is made for using the covariance-based statistic as a simple diagnostic procedure for shared frailty in a parametric exploratory analysis of multivariate lifetime data and a link to the bivariate Clayton–Oakes copula model is shown.     

Patriarchal bargains in short-term women's migration from Bangladesh

This paper looks at the migration of women from Bangladesh to the Middle East as short-term migrants, mainly for work in the domestic care sector as domestic workers, housekeepers, nannies, cooks, etc. This group accounts for about 15 per cent of the total short-term migration cohort. They face particular challenges around not only the precarity of their employment but also in navigating a series of patriarchal norms in both Bangladesh and the destination countries in the Middle East. The paper will build on the work of Deniz Kandiyoti and her seminal work on patriarchal bargains. This paper will explore the challenges women face in migrating to the Middle East: in their decision to migrate, their experiences abroad, and on return and reintegration into Bangladesh society and their home life, and how these are determined by a series of patriarchal bargains both in Bangladesh and the destination country.     

Media Effects on Group Collaboration: An Empirical Examination in an Ethical Decision‐Making Context

Even though it is widely acknowledged that collaboration underlies much of the decision‐making efforts in contemporary organizations, and that organizational groups are increasingly making decisions that have ethical implications, few studies have examined group ethical decision‐making processes and outcomes. In addition, while there is increasing evidence that groups often collaborate/communicate using different mediating technologies, few studies have examined the effect of the characteristics of the media in group ethical decision‐making contexts. Finally, there is a clear paucity of studies that have investigated group decision making pertaining to information technology (IT)‐related ethical dilemmas, an area of rising importance for information systems (IS) and decision science researchers. This article seeks to address the gaps described above through an experimental study where groups collaborating either in a face‐to‐face context or in a computer‐mediated context (using NetMeeting or Wiki) were required to make a decision with respect to a scenario with an IT‐related ethical dilemma. Results indicate that media characteristics (e.g., anonymity, immediacy of feedback, parallelism) do not have an effect on whether groups make ethical (or unethical) decisions. However, several media characteristics were found to play a significant role on downstream variables, such as the quality of a follow‐up task (i.e., creation of a decision justification document), and overall process satisfaction of the group members.     

A position embedded in identity: subalternity in neoliberal globalization

ABSTRACT

Gayatri Spivak asserts that subalternity is a position without identity and has no examples. This paper demonstrates that identities – imposed and subscribed to, contingent yet naturalized – have to be taken into account, particularly when we consider that such identities are inscribed into a war of positions. It argues that the notion of ‘subaltern’ in Gramsci, followed through in the idea of ‘subjugated knowledges’ in Foucault, read commonly as marginality, intervenes in established social relations to expose that Time is asynonymous with History. Subalternity, emblematized through positions, which are held by identities, plays a crucial role in negotiating that discontinuity between Time and History. The paper ‘relocates’ subalternity by redefining it as a process – in order to convey this, I use ‘subalternized’ instead of ‘subaltern’; identity, then, is also necessarily a process, captured temporarily in the course of political–cultural engagement. The essay reads the positions of racialized and gendered subalternized knowledges in the contexts of neoliberal globalization, in North America and South Asia, through the processes of identity-makings of two groups – the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center (Minneapolis, USA) and the Feminist Dalit Organization (Lalitpur, Nepal).     

Simulation‐based sample‐sizing and power calculations in logistic regression with partial prior information

There have been many approximations developed for sample sizing of a logistic regression model with a single normally‐distributed stimulus. Despite this, it has been recognised that there is no consensus as to the best method. In pharmaceutical drug development, simulation provides a powerful tool to characterise the operating characteristics of complex adaptive designs and is an ideal method for determining the sample size for such a problem. In this paper, we address some issues associated with applying simulation to determine the sample size for a given power in the context of logistic regression. These include efficient methods for evaluating the convolution of a logistic function and a normal density and an efficient heuristic approach to searching for the appropriate sample size. We illustrate our approach with three case studies. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimum number of Kanbans between two adjacent stations

A model and solution strategies are developed for determining the optimum number of Kanbans between two adjacent workstations. The total cost is expressed as a function of the number of Kanbans, and the parameters, shortage cost of materials and holding cost of containers. Since the number of Kanbans obtained has to be an integer, an incremental search procedure is used, which leads to the construction of a strong bound on the optimal number of Kanbans required.