AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF THE UNDERLYING DIMENSIONS OF PURCHASING COMPETENCE

The importance of evaluating the effectiveness of the purchasing function in firms along multiple criteria has attracted considerable attention. However, few studies have identified the defining elements that constitute purchasing competence. This paper introduces the construct of purchasing competence using a second‐order factor structure derived from purchasing practices identified from the literature. The validity of the construct (purchasing competence) is tested using data from a sample of 179 firms. The results indicate (1) the construct validity of purchasing competence and (2) the predictive validity of purchasing competence, which has a significant positive influence on total quality management performance and customer satisfaction. The implications of these findings for additional research are discussed.     

EFFECTS OF INTERVIEWER GENDER, INTERVIEWER CHOICE, AND ITEM WORDING ON RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS CONCERNING SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

We examined factors influencing responses to questions on sexualbehavior among adult respondents 18–49 years old (unweightedN = 2,030) obtained through a random-digit dialing survey. Basedon self-disclosure and perceived control the ory, we hypothesizedthat giving people a choice in selecting the gender of theirinterviewer rather than being assigned an inter viewer, andusing questions that are "supportive" of what may be perceivedof as nonnormative behavior (enhanced items), would increasedata quality relative to, respectively, matched-or opposite-genderinterviewer conditions and standard worded items. The enhanceditems facilitated responding to a number of sensitive topics.However, the effects of item wording on item response are oftenmediated by interviewer conditions. The "choice" results suggestthat giving respondents greater control decreases question threat.However, the overall findings argue for matching respondentsand interviewers on gender over opposite-gender interviewersor allowing respondents to select their interviewer's gender.Wording and interviewer manipulations reduced the discrepanciesbetween men's and women's self-reports of sexual behavior, butthey did not eliminate them, and in some cases they had no effect.The present findings suggest that males tend to be influencedby variations in item wording, interviewer gender, and respondentcontrol across a somewhat wider range of sexual topics. In general,the findings recommend matching respondents and interviewerson gender and the use of more supportive wording in sexual behaviorquestions. However, for assessment of some topics (e.g., sexualviolence) in particular segments of the population (e.g., men),other procedures, such as increasing respondent control, maybe a better choice. Overall, the data support the view thatin terms of preferred procedures, not all sexual topics arecreated equal.     

An integrated functional representation of concurrent engineering

A time-based competitive strategy is a driving force for enterprises that are striving to be competitive on a global basis. One of the methods to help in the time compression of the product development life cycle is concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering is not only an approach that is used by the engineering function of the organization, but it is also one that crosses organizational boundaries. In this article an integrated functional model of the concurrent engineering process and its relationship with the product development life cycle is presented. A functional comparison to the traditional engineering approach for product development is also provided.     

READING, WRITING, AND SEX: THE EFFECT OF LOSING VIRGINITY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Controlling for a wide set of individual- and family-level observables available in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates show that sexually active adolescents have grade point averages that are approximately 0.2 points lower than virgins. However, when information on the timing of intercourse decisions is exploited and individual fixed effects are included, the negative effect of sexual intercourse disappears for females, but persists for males. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that while there may be adverse academic spillovers from engaging in intercourse for some adolescents, previous studies' estimates are overstated due to unmeasured heterogeneity. ( JEL I10, I21, I18)     

RELIABILITY OF STATED PREFERENCES FOR CHOLERA AND TYPHOID VACCINES WITH TIME TO THINK IN HUE,VIETNAM

We examine the effect of giving respondents time to think about their stated choices (SC) in a survey of cholera and typhoid vaccine preferences in Hue, Vietnam. Because neither vaccine is widely available in Vietnam, we used the SC approach (a stated preference technique) and gave half of our respondents overnight to think about their choices to make the hypothetical valuation scenario as similar to a real‐life choice situation as possible. Respondents who were given extra time made fewer choices that violated internal validity tests of utility theory, and had lower average willingness to pay (WTP), confirming a result found in similar studies in the contingent valuation literature. (JEL D12, I18, C25)     

Moral Duties in Business and Their Societal Impacts: The Case of the Subprime Lending Mess

A worldwide recession of unusual breadth and depth is causing harm to many individuals and businesses. While the causes are complex, the recession got its start with failures in the subprime mortgage market. The process of creating such loans is complex and often includes securitization after loans are approved. The reasons for the subprime lending mess can be at least partly traced to decisions made by individual mortgage brokers and lending officers. These individuals had moral or ethical responsibilities because of their positions. An analysis of the rights and duties approach to ethics shows that some of these individuals failed in their moral duties and that their failure is partly to blame for the resulting harmful consequences.     

CONSEQUENCES OF PARTICIPATING IN A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF MARRIAGE

The possibility that survey research methods, particularly thoseused in longitudinal studies, can effect enduring changes inattitudes or behavior among respondents was explored using datafrom a 4-year study of black and white newlyweds. Randomly selectedcouples in first marriages were assigned to either a relativelylarge study group or a smaller control group, with the formerreceiving more frequent and more intense interviewing over thestudy period. Some evidence is found that participating in thepanel procedures has consequences for the experience of maritalwell-being. Compared to the control group, the study group hadsignificantly higher variance in their reported marital satisfactionin the second year of marriage, reflecting the fact that a greaternumber of study group respondents reported low satisfaction.By the fourth year, however, the marriages of the study groupcouples appeared to be better adjusted on several dimensionsof marital quality.     

The Solidarity of Skilled Workers: Creating a Logic of Particularism

Abstract The organization of workers into craft unions in the United States during the Gilded Age (1865–1900) can be interpreted as a search for viable strategy. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) successfully built a durable movement - based on the emergence, development, and consolidation of a distinctive 'logic of particularism'. Workers' strategic behavior was based on building and sustaining organizations able to survive periods of economic difficulty and political repression. The analysis shows that organized labor increasingly relied on exclusionary principles in which inclusion within the organized segment of the working class involved a repeated scaling down to a defensible core. This process also reflected the impact of macro-historical structural forces. The combination of strategic behavior and structural influences causally explains the establishment of a narrowly-based and emphatically particularistic working class movement.     

MASS AND ELITE ATTITUDES ABOUT WIRETAPPING IN CANADA: IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC THEORY AND POLITICS

Evidence from a recent study of Canadian attitudes toward civilliberties indicates that the issue of wiretapping presents animportant exception to the familiar theory of democratic elitism.Ironically, the very sophistication and knowledge that leadselites to support individual rights and freedoms also makesthem more likely to support wiretapping than the Canadian populationas a whole.