Nonlinear structural equation modeling: is partial least squares an alternative?

Nonlinear structural equation modeling provides many advantages over analyses based on manifest variables only. Several approaches for the analysis of latent interaction effects have been developed within the last 15 years, including the partial least squares product indicator approach (PLS-PI), the constrained product indicator approach using the LISREL software (LISREL-PI), and the distribution-analytic latent moderated structural equations approach (LMS) using the Mplus program. An assumed advantage of PLS-PI is that it is able to deal with very large numbers of indicators, while LISREL-PI and LMS have not been investigated under such conditions. In a Monte Carlo study, the performance of LISREL-PI and LMS was compared to PLS-PI results previously reported in Chin et al. (2003) and Goodhue et al. (2007) for identical conditions. The latent interaction model included six indicator variables for the measurement of each latent predictor variable and the latent criterion, and sample size was N=100. The results showed that PLS-PI’s linear and interaction parameter estimates were downward biased, while parameter estimates were unbiased for LISREL-PI and LMS. True standard errors were smallest for PLS-PI, while the power to detect the latent interaction effect was higher for LISREL-PI and LMS. Compared to the symmetric distributions of interaction parameter estimates for LISREL-PI and LMS, PLS-PI showed a distribution that was symmetric for positive values, but included outlying negative estimates. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed.     

Occupational stress as it relates to higher education,individuals and organizations

This study examined through survey research methodology the degree to which, faculty, administrators and program coordinators, working in higher education, experience stress at work. The Occupational Stress Indicator was used, composed of four compound factors: sources of occupational stress, individual characteristics, coping strategies and the effects of stress. Preliminary findings showed that occupational stress has a negative impact on the degree of satisfaction with their achievement, value and growth, being strongest with faculty and coordinators, (dissatisfaction with career opportunities, personal growth, skill utilization). Another significant outcome was the dissatisfaction of faculty with the organizational design, structure and processes (communication, change implementation, motivation, supervision style, participation in decision-making). All possess individual characteristics of the Type A Scale; they all considered major sources of pressure in their jobs to be their relationships with others, home/work interface, their need to achieve personal and corporate success. Occupational stress has affected their state of health.     

Auswirkungen von Downsizing-Maßnahmen auf das organisationale Commitment der verbleibenden Mitarbeiter: Ein Vorher-Nachher-Vergleich

This study examines the consequences of downsizing efforts on organizational commitment, job satisfaction and work motivation of the remaining workforce (?survivors“) in a middle-sized telecommunication company. Employees were surveyed five months prior to the downsizing process (n=150) and eleven months thereafter (n=160). The assessment of organizational commitment was based on a questionnaire that was developed by Allen and Meyer (1990) within the scope of their three-components-model which includes affective, continuous and normative commitment. Although layoffs — as one part of the whole downsizing process — were not implemented in the investigated company, but only in a sister enterprise, which is part of the same holding, the affective commitment of employees towards their corporation dropped. On the other hand, the normative and the balanced commitment remained constant. Moreover, every second survivor showed reduced job satisfaction and work motivation. It should be noted that although the results of reorganisation and restructuring did not directly affect the employees of the investigated company, the emotional linkage between employees and employer was affected in a negative way. Additional findings from qualitative interviews suggest that restructuring was perceived to cause a crack in the prevailing corporate culture and the psychological contract. In addition, a deterioration of work conditions through work overload resulted.     

$$D_s$$-optimality in copula models

Optimum experimental design theory has recently been extended for parameter estimation in copula models. The use of these models allows one to gain in flexibility by considering the model parameter set split into marginal and dependence parameters. However, this separation also leads to the natural issue of estimating only a subset of all model parameters. In this work, we treat this problem with the application of the \(D_s\)-optimality to copula models. First, we provide an extension of the corresponding equivalence theory. Then, we analyze a wide range of flexible copula models to highlight the usefulness of \(D_s\)-optimality in many possible scenarios. Finally, we discuss how the usage of the introduced design criterion also relates to the more general issue of copula selection and optimal design for model discrimination.     

Intensity, timeliness, and success of incumbent response to technological discontinuities: a synthesis and empirical investigation

The extant literature highlights numerous different factors influencing the timeliness and intensity of incumbent response to discontinuous technological change. However, this literature has so far not been synthesized and is therefore limited in its analytical, predictive, and normative power. We develop a comprehensive model of incumbent response that organizes different explanatory factors into the three distinct dimensions of (1) identification and interpretation, (2) decision making, and (3) organizational implementation. We also conceptualize how response intensity and timeliness affect business performance in new technological domains. We test the model against data from 320 firms from the German dental lab industry, finding substantial support for the majority of our hypotheses. This study offers unique empirical insight in observing that cognitive constructs such as framing and management flexibility have the strongest impact on both intensity and timeliness of incumbent response to technological, and thus, strategic discontinuities. Together, our findings have important implications for both theory and practice.     

The combination of forecasts in the trading of electricity from renewable energy sources

The legal support provided by the ‘Act on Granting Priority to Renewable Energy Sources’ (German Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz, EEG) and its precursor has in the last 20 years led to a marked growth in Germany in the use of renewable energies to generate electricity. As a result of the EEG amendment adopted in the summer of 2011 and in force since 1 January 2012, the market integration of electricity generated from renewable energy sources (RES-E) has become more important. Consequently, the economic importance of trading RES-E has also increased. A major role in determining costs in trading electricity from wind and solar energy on the wholesale markets plays the forecasting method used. If a forecast inaccurately predicts the amount of electricity actually generated, one result could be elevated costs in the trading process. In the beginning of this article we introduce the legal framework governing the trading of RES-E. Subsequently, we present a method for combining several individual forecasting methods. Finally, using empirical data, we show that in comparison to the best available individual forecast, the proposed combined forecast results in a clear improvement of forecasting quality as well as in a reduction in trading costs.     

Further specification of the leader political skill–leadership effectiveness relationships: Transformational and transactional leader behavior as mediators

The present investigation was a three-source test of the intermediate linkages in the leader political skill–leader effectiveness and follower satisfaction relationships, which examined transformational and transactional (i.e., contingent reward behavior) leader behavior as mediators. Data from 408 leaders (headmasters) and 1429 followers (teachers) of state schools in the western part of Germany participated in this research. The results of mediation analyses, based on bias-corrected bootstrapping confidence intervals, provided support for the hypotheses that political skill predicts both transformational and transactional leader behavior, beyond other established predictors, and that transformational and transactional leader behavior mediate the relationships between leader political skill and leadership effectiveness. The contributions to theory and research, strengths and limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.     

The Boundary Spanning Effects of the Muslim Diaspora on the Internationalization Processes of Firms from Organization of Islamic Conference Countries

While scholarly attention to the role played by diasporans in facilitating cross-country trade has recently increased, the implicitness of this phenomenon has prevented many researchers from examining empirically how these processes actually work. Unlike previous studies that focus on diasporans from specific countries of origin, we take a different perspective on diasporans by looking beyond country boundaries. We focus on religious/cultural groupings, specifically on Muslim diasporans living in the West. We utilize a phenomenological driven qualitative research approach to investigate the effects of Muslim diasporans on the internationalization processes of firms from Organization of Islamic Conference countries in the context of the halal industry. Our exploratory study provides some evidence for (1) the boundary spanner roles played by Muslim diasporans within the halal industry across more than dyadic country contexts and (2) for Rahnema's (2006) triple identity theory.     

Quantifying uncertainty in the biospheric carbon flux for England and Wales

Summary.  A crucial issue in the current global warming debate is the effect of vegetation and soils on carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations in the atmosphere. Vegetation can extract CO₂ through photosynthesis, but respiration, decay of soil organic matter and disturbance effects such as fire return it to the atmosphere. The balance of these processes is the net carbon flux. To estimate the biospheric carbon flux for England and Wales, we address the statistical problem of inference for the sum of multiple outputs from a complex deterministic computer code whose input parameters are uncertain. The code is a process model which simulates the carbon dynamics of vegetation and soils, including the amount of carbon that is stored as a result of photosynthesis and the amount that is returned to the atmosphere through respiration. The aggregation of outputs corresponding to multiple sites and types of vegetation in a region gives an estimate of the total carbon flux for that region over a period of time. Expert prior opinions are elicited for marginal uncertainty about the relevant input parameters and for correlations of inputs between sites. A Gaussian process model is used to build emulators of the multiple code outputs and Bayesian uncertainty analysis is then used to propagate uncertainty in the input parameters through to uncertainty on the aggregated output. Numerical results are presented for England and Wales in the year 2000. It is estimated that vegetation and soils in England and Wales constituted a net sink of 7.55 Mt C (1 Mt C = 10¹² g of carbon) in 2000, with standard deviation 0.56 Mt C resulting from the sources of uncertainty that are considered.     

Simulated classical tests in multinomial probit models

This paper compares the application of different versions of the simulated counterparts of the Wald test, the score test, and the likelihood ratio test in one- and multiperiod multinomial probit models. Monte Carlo experiments show that the use of the simple form of the simulated likelihood ratio test delivers relatively robust results regarding the testing of several multinomial probit model specifications. In contrast, the inclusion of the Hessian matrix of the simulated loglikelihood function into the simulated score test and (in the multiperiod multinomial probit model) particularly the inclusion of the quasi-maximum likelihood theory into the simulated likelihood ratio test leads to substantial computational problems. The combined application of the quasi-maximum likelihood theory with the simulated Wald test or the simulated score test is not systematically superior to the application of the other versions of these two simulated classical tests either. Neither an increase in the number of observations nor in the number of random draws in the incorporated Geweke-Hajivassiliou-Keane simulator systematically lead to more precise conformities between the frequencies of type I errors and the basic significance levels. An increase in the number of observations only decreases the frequencies of type II errors, particularly regarding the simulated classical testing of multiperiod multinomial probit model specifications.