The Organizational Connection: Social Capital and the Career Expansion of Directors of Business Groups in Israel

This article studies which directors of the largest corporations forming part of the Israeli business groups accumulated directorships within the groups between the years 1974 and 1988. A comparison is made between directors within business groups who accumulate directorships and those who do not, and in addition, the research focuses on directors who joined additional boards, questioning who gets ahead in terms of three components of social capital: organizational positions, elite positions, and social networks. The study uses logistic regression to discern which variables increase the likelihood of being invited onto an additional board within the business groups and the likelihood of getting ahead. The findings strongly support the hypothesis that the organizational position of directors, more than their elite position ties and social networks, is the most significant determinant of who will join additional boards and who will get ahead. The article is concluded with a discussion of several factors contributing to relative impact of organizational positions.     

History,place, and racial self-representation in 21st century America

How is a person's racial self-representation related to the race history of the place in which he or she lives? We use Census Bureau data about race and ancestry to address this research question for two groups of people with mixed racial heritage: those reporting white and American Indian heritages, or reporting black and American Indian heritages. Links between history, place, and self-representation can be seen in geographic clustering for each race/ancestry response combination. We use multinomial logistic regression models to predict individuals' race/ancestry responses (e.g., white with American Indian ancestry versus white and American Indian races) using measures of local race history and the area's contemporary racial composition. Multivariate results highlight the relationship between a person's identity claims and the history of the area, net of contemporary area composition. Future research should attend to the history of the place as a potential contributor to contemporary patterns.     

Shaking things up or business as usual? The influence of female corporate executives and board of directors on women’s managerial representation

Previous theory and research suggests that workplace gender composition at the highest organizational levels should play a crucial role in reducing gender linked inequalities in the workplace. In this article, we examine how the presence of women in top corporate positions influences female managerial representation at the establishment-level. Using a unique multi-level dataset of 5679 establishments nested within 81 Fortune 1000 corporations, we find that having more women on corporate boards, but not in executive positions, at the firm-level is associated with greater female managerial representation at the establishment-level. The results also show that women are more likely to be in management positions when employed in young, large, and managerially intensive workplaces, as well as those with a larger percentage of female non-managers. Implications for future research and policy implementation are discussed.     

Invisible norms? Statistics of racial polarization and consensus

Social scientists often arrive at opposite portrayals of American race relations, despite relying on identical data sources. Depending on their ideological predispositions, they either minimize or maximize remaining racial inequalities. The election of President Obama suggests that the reality of American race relations likely falls somewhere in between - but where?This paper applies a simple method of comparing racial gaps across domains on a shared metric. Results suggest that non-violence represents a shared norm rendered invisible by traditional data presentation formats that exaggerate existing ‘crime gaps.’ Other racial gaps are more substantial, e.g., in education, income, and race-related public opinion. However, even in these domains Black-White agreement (group concordance) tends to outweigh disagreement (group discordance). Exceptions are monetary reparations for slavery and presidential approval ratings of Obama. Thus, characterizations of America as ‘post-racial’ seem premature. However, given that racial equality (once achieved) will marked by group concordance and shared norms, equality measures should capture emerging commonalities in addition to remaining gaps.     

Workplace racial composition, perceived discrimination, and organizational attachment

Prior research has devoted considerable attention to the relationship between the racial and ethnic composition of jobs and various indicators of organizational attachment. Fewer studies, however, examine how workplace racial composition affects individuals’ experiences of racial discrimination or how these experiences impact workers’ organizational attachment. To address this lacuna, we first examine the effects of workplace racial composition on perceived racial and ethnic discrimination. Next, we examine whether perceived racial discrimination mediates the association between racial composition and organizational attachment observed in prior studies. Finally, we explore whether these relationships are similar (symmetric) or different (non-symmetric) for non-Whites and Whites. The analyses indicate: (1) working with predominately same-race coworkers tends to diminish perceptions of racial discrimination, (2) perceived racial discrimination mediates some of the effects of racial/ethnic composition on organizational attachment, and (3) some non-symmetric effects between non-Whites and Whites are found. We conclude with implications for future research.     

Population change and the legacy of slavery

Despite increasing evidence of a contemporary legacy of slavery in the US South, scholars do not have a clear empirical understanding of the ways in which demographic forces can alter local connections to racial histories. In this study, we examine the influence of long-run trends in population change on the relationship between historical slave concentration and contemporary black-white poverty inequality in the American South. We combine one century and a half of county-level population data, including estimates of the slave and total populations in 1860, estimates of black and white population change starting in 1880, and black-white poverty disparities from the 2011–2015 American Community Survey. Our results offer new empirical evidence regarding the enduring influence of racial histories over time, and suggest that white population increase between 1880 and 1910 was particularly influential in understanding the local connection between slave concentration and black-white inequality. Moreover, rather than disrupting the transmission of the legacy of slavery, results indicate that white population increase may have helped spread this legacy of racial inequality to other counties through diffusion processes. We find that while local historical legacies are persistent, they are not permanent, and population trends are a critical force shaping local racial inequality.     

Perceptions as the crucial link? The mediating role of neighborhood perceptions in the relationship between the neighborhood context and neighborhood cohesion

This study examines the effects of neighborhood racial in-group size, economic deprivation and the prevalence of crime on neighborhood cohesion among U.S. whites. We explore to what extent residents' perceptions of their neighborhood mediate these macro-micro relationships. We use a recent individual-level data set, the American Social Fabric Study (2012/2013), enriched with contextual-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2010) and employ multi-level structural equation models. We show that the racial in-group size is positively related to neighborhood cohesion and that neighborhood cohesion is lower in communities with a high crime rate. Individuals' perceptions of the racial in-group size partly mediate the relationship between the objective racial in-group size and neighborhood cohesion. Residents’ perceptions of unsafety from crime also appear to be a mediating factor, not only for the objective crime rate but also for the objective racial in-group size. This is in line with our idea that racial stereotypes link racial minorities to crime whereby neighborhoods with a large non-white population are perceived to be more unsafe. Residents of the same neighborhood differ in how they perceive the degree of economic decay of the neighborhood and this causes them to evaluate neighborhood cohesion differently, however perceptions of neighborhood economic decay do not explain the link between the objective neighborhood context and neighborhood cohesion.     

Ties on the fringes of identity

I use data on part-American Indian children in the 1990 Census 5% PUMS to assess my hypotheses that thick racial ties within the family constrain racial identification, and that structural aspects of the community (group size, inequality, and racial heterogeneity) affect racial identification when racial ties are thin within the family. American Indians present an interesting case study because their high levels of intermarriage and complex patterns of assimilation/identity retention for generations provide a varied group of people who could potentially identify their race as American Indian. Several hypotheses are supported by the data, signifying that racial identification among people with mixed-heritage is affected by the social world beyond individual psychology and racial ties within the family.     

Place matters: Contextualizing the roles of religion and race for understanding Americans' attitudes about homosexuality

As laws and policies related to homosexuality have evolved, Americans' attitudes have also changed. Race and religion have been established as important indicators of feelings about homosexuality. However, researchers have given almost no attention to how county characteristics shape Americans' attitudes. Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling techniques, we examine how personal characteristics and the religious and racial context of a county shape feelings about homosexuality drawing on data from the American National Election Survey and information about where respondents reside. We find that African Americans initially appear less tolerant than other racial groups, until we account for the geographical distribution of attitudes across the nation. Additionally, once we consider religious involvement, strength of belief, and religious affiliation African Americans appear to have warmer feelings about homosexuality than whites. Drawing on the moral communities' hypothesis, we also find that the strength of religiosity amongst county residents heightens the influence of personal religious beliefs on disapproving attitudes. There is also a direct effect of the proportion conservative Protestant, whereby people of all faiths have cooler attitudes towards homosexual individuals when they reside in a county with a higher proportion of conservative Protestants. Finally, we do not find any evidence for an African American cultural influence on attitudes.     

‘What about the couple?’ Interracial marriage and psychological distress

We explore the association between racial composition of couples—that is, whether they are interracial or homogamous—and the psychological distress of their members, as measured in a screening scale for non-specific psychological distress. We use a pooled 1997–2001 National Health Interview Survey sample of the married and cohabiting population of the United States. We compare the odds of distress for interracial vs. same race married/cohabiting adults. There are several key findings. Interracial marriage is associated with increases in severe distress for Native American men, white women, and for Hispanic men and women married to non-white spouses, compared to endogamous members of the same groups. Higher rates of distress are observed for intermarried persons with African American or Native American husbands or wives, and for women with Hispanic husbands. Lower socioeconomic status explains approximately half of the increased distress experienced by white women, while higher socioeconomic status partially suppresses increases in distress for Hispanic men and women.     

连锁董事与企业战略:前沿理论与实证研究评述

董事之重要,在于他们是制定和监督企业战略的商业精英,企业竞争优势的培育和利益相关者价值的最大化都离不开一个精英董事会。特别是,具有多家董事席位,我们称作连锁董事的人,对企业的战略制定具有特殊的作用。根植于西方发达国家的连锁董事研究已近一个世纪。连锁董事使得企业嵌入于一个有关商业知识和实践的传播体制,其中,具有更多的连锁董事的企业更容易产生创新、发生战略模仿、建立企业间联盟以及促进企业对外部资源的获取。今天,在中国转型经济条件下,连锁董事现象也非常普及,企业之间因为连锁董事而形成了一个紧密的商业网络,连锁董事通过影响和塑造企业的战略选择而影响整个经济系统。因为转型经济的特点,连锁董事对企业战略的影响也势必受到来自于不同层面的边界条件的约束,相关问题研究在转型经济条件下也变得越来越重要。     

浅析政治因素在美语词汇中的反映

随着社会的发展和人类思维的更新,语言不断被输入新鲜血液。美式英语,作为英语这门古老而优秀的语言的分支,也经历了无数次变革大潮的冲击。其中政治因素对美语词汇的影响很大,总统竞选、种族歧视、女权运动都对美语词汇产生影响。美语词汇中出现了大量的新词与新义。通过对政治因素和美语词汇最新发展的了解,有助于美语学习者更好地掌握美语这门语言。     

Spatial variation in poverty-generating processes: Child poverty in the United States

This study builds on research demonstrating that sub-regions within the United States have different processes that abet poverty and that child poverty is spatially differentiated. We focus on the social attributes of the local area to assess what the geographic place represents in terms of social characteristics, namely racial/ethnic composition and economic structure, and to resolve apparent inconsistencies in poverty research. Using spatial regime and spatial error regression techniques to analyze county census data, we examine spatial differentiation in the relationships that generate child poverty. Our approach addresses the conceptual and technical aspects of spatial inequality. Results show that local-area processes are at play with implications for more nuanced theoretical models and anti-poverty policies that consider systematic differences in factors contributing to child poverty according to the racial/ethnic and economic contexts.     

Everybody's Doin' It (Right?): Neighborhood Norms and Sexual Activity in Adolescence

A neighborhood’s normative climate is linked to, but conceptually distinct from, its structural characteristics such as poverty and racial/ethnic composition. Given the deleterious consequences of early sexual activity for adolescent health and well-being, it is important to assess normative influences on youth behaviors such as sexual debut, number of sex partners, and involvement in casual sexual experiences. The current study moves beyond prior research by constructing a measure of normative climate that more fully captures neighborhood norms, and analyzing the influence of normative climate on behavior in a longitudinal framework. Using recently geo-coded data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), we analyze the effect of normative climate on adolescents’ sexual behaviors. Results indicate that variation in neighborhood normative climates increases adolescents’ odds of sexual debut and casual sex, and is associated with their number of sex partners, even after accounting for neighborhood structural disadvantage and demographic risk factors.     

反收购视野下目标公司管理层的行为规制

随着近年中国证券市场的发展,公司收购已经成为了具有高竞争力公司扩张的重要途径之一,伴随着收购与反收购大战愈演愈烈,目标公司的反收购制度急需构建,以此来规范反收购过程中各利益主体的行为。因此,强化目标公司管理层的行为规制有了越来越重要的实践意义,本文也将从理论及实践两个方面入手,比较英美的立法模式,结合《上市公司收购管理办法》的规定,提出一些实践探索方面的建议。     

“双重意识”问题与美国黑人的身份建构

二十世纪的美国黑人小说反映了作家们的“双重意识”以及他们对美国黑人文化身份的思考。他们对身份的探讨呈现出三种倾向：一是“融入”思想,希望被白人主流社会接纳;二是强调其“黑人性”,激发种族自豪感、增强种族凝聚力,与白人种族主义分庭抗争;三是建构其美国人的身份,同时强调其黑人性。这些倾向也是广大美国黑人寻找文化身份时的心理写照。文化身份具有客观、本质的特性的同时又具有主观、建构的特点。双重意识问题形象生动地再现了美国黑人的文化心理。随着时间的推移、社会的变迁以及个人经历的变化,美国黑人作家对文化身份的思考也会随之出现差异或者由差异走向趋同。     

Disentangling the reciprocal relationship between change in crime and racial/ethnic change

Prior research has found that racial/ethnic change and residential instability are positively related to neighborhood crime. However, the process of racial/ethnic change differentially influences crime above and beyond residential instability. While both processes affect crime through the disruption of existing social ties, racial/ethnic change has additional consequences for crime by heightening racial/ethnic tensions and undercutting cross-group interactions. This means racial/ethnic change is a different process than residential instability, and suggests that neighborhoods experiencing high rates of instability and high rates of racial/ethnic change may be particularly susceptible to crime. Therefore, we examine the influence of racial/ethnic compositional change on change in crime across different levels of residential instability. Further, we argue that demographic change and crime may be influencing each other simultaneously: increases in the crime rate and racial/ethnic compositional change impact each other at the same time. To capture this process, we employ a structural equation model (SEM) that accounts for the reciprocal and simultaneous relationship between racial/ethnic change and violent and property crime rates in Los Angeles, California between 1990 and 2000. We also account for the influence of change in spatially proximate communities. Results show robust evidence that increases in racial/ethnic change contributes to greater violent and property crime rates, but the reciprocal influence of crime on racial/ethnic change is contingent upon the degree to which a neighborhood is experiencing residential instability and crime type.     

Perpetuation theory and the racial segregation of young adults

Previous research confirms a strong empirical association between the racial composition of young adults' residential areas and the racial compositions of the residential areas and schools of their youth. Perpetuation theory predicts that part of this association is causal. The present study uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) and the U.S. Censuses of 1990 and 2000 to test for this effect with regression models, propensity-score-weighted models with robustness tests, and regression models that look at long-distance movers. The findings suggest that the association declines rapidly as the distance moved increases, but it remains robust even at long distances. It is also stronger for African Americans and more assimilated Latinos than for whites and less assimilated Latinos. These findings suggests that to some extent, young white, African American, and Latino adults are residentially segregated from each other because they grew up that way. Policies that promote integrating youth residentially and/or desegregating schools may contribute to residential integration over time.     

BKT并购及其特征分析

本文研究这样一类并购现象,并购企业是大公司,并购目标是知识型和技术型创新小公司,并购的目的是大公司获得新的知识资源和技术资源,创新小公司获得大公司的资金优势、组织资源和营销能力,将这类并购称为BKT并购。本文对BKT并购的特征进行详细的分析,认为BKT并购是跨国公司发展的重要手段,对它的研究对于我国企业具有特殊意义。     

The enduring importance of family wealth: Evidence from the Forbes 400, 1982 to 2013

The richest 1 percent in the United States is a largely unexplored group, despite its ever-increasing share of the national wealth. The Forbes roster of the richest Americans has often been used to demonstrate the fading of nineteenth-century hereditary fortunes. Based on full panel data from the annual American Forbes 400 ranking (1982–2013), this article goes beyond previous work by examining not only the sources of the very wealthy but also the factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of remaining listed among the American super-rich and the typical patterns of mobility. We find that heirs are more likely to remain listed in the Forbes 400 roster than self-made entrepreneurs, all other things being equal. While scions of great wealth are less likely to drop completely from the list, they are nevertheless more likely to fall gradually in ranking than are self-made multimillionaires. Even though entrepreneurship matters increasingly for becoming super-rich, we conclude that it is first and foremost the ability of rich family dynasties to retain control over corporations and to access sophisticated financial advice that makes fortunes last.