Multiple motives of pro-social behavior: evidence from the solidarity game

The article analyses experimental “solidarity games” with two benefactors and one beneficiary. Depending on their motive for giving—e.g., warm glow, altruism, or guilt—the benefactors’ response functions are either constant, decreasing, or increasing. If motives interact, or if envy is a concern, then more complex (unimodal) shapes may emerge. Controlling for random utility perturbations, we determine which and how many motives affect individual decision making. The main findings are that the motives of about 75% of the subjects can be identified fairly sharply, that all of the motives discussed in the literature co-exist in the population, and that for any given individual no more than two motives (out of six motives considered overall) are identified. We conclude that a unifying motive for solidarity cannot be derived even when we allow for individually heterogeneous parameterization: different subjects give for different reasons and all existing social preference theories are partially correct.     

The potential of domiciliary care service in the Czech Republic to promote ageing in place

Due to population ageing, the need for long-term care is increasing. In many European countries, there is now a firm policy preference for care in the home as opposed to institutional care and policies at the local level support this preference. The purpose of this study is to report on the position of domiciliary care service within the Czech social services for the elderly and to explore its potential to promote ‘ageing in place’. The aim of the research was to perceive this issue from the viewpoint of the different parties: service users, service workers, service managers as well as policy-makers. Therefore, the qualitative methodology (case study method) was used. The results revealed that users considered domiciliary care as the only service in the Czech Republic that allowed them to remain at home despite their worsening capacity to manage the activities of daily living. On the part of the domiciliary care service, however, we found that this was strong in the provision of practical help, as well as assistance with users' self-maintenance, whereas their supervision and care management were not explicitly included either in the concept or the practice of this type of service.     

Multiple recipes for success – A configurational examination of business portfolio restructurings

This explorative empirical study investigates which sets of portfolio restructuring design characteristics, contingent on individual firm and industry characteristics, lead to successful business portfolio transformations. We draw on insights from the strategic change, strategic fit, and organizational turnaround literature and develop a contingency model for transformation success. To allow for complex configurations, we employ a set-theoretic approach based on fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our findings suggest that there is no single best strategy for restructuring a portfolio. Rather, there are multiple pathways to success in portfolio transformation, depending on a firm's competitive posture and industry environment. In particular, our results highlight the pivotal influence of prior firm performance and environmental jolts on the design of successful business portfolio restructuring (BPR) strategies.     

Share,like, twitter,and connect: Ecological momentary assessment to examine the relationship between non-work social media use at work and work engagement

Non-work social media use at work has seen a dramatic increase in the last decade and is commonly deemed counterproductive work behaviour. However, we examined whether it may also serve as a micro-break and improve work engagement. We used ecological momentary assessment across 1 working day with up to 10 hourly measurements in 334 white-collar workers to measure non-work social media use and work engagement, resulting in 2235 hourly measurements. Multilevel modelling demonstrated that non-work social media use was associated with lower levels of work engagement between persons. Within persons, non-work social media use was also associated with lower concurrent work engagement. However, non-work social media use was related to higher levels of work engagement 1 hour later. While more extensive non-work social media use at work was generally associated with lower work engagement, our advanced study design revealed that the longer employees used social media for non-work purposes during 1 working hour, the more work engaged they were in the subsequent working hour, suggesting that employees turn to social media when energy levels are low and/or when they (temporarily) lose interest in their work. This behaviour may serve as a break, which in turn increases work engagement later during the day.     

Scoring predictions at extreme quantiles

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis - Prediction of quantiles at extreme tails is of interest in numerous applications. Extreme value modelling provides various competing predictors for this...     

Infant locomotion shapes proximity to adults during everyday play in the U.S.

Learning to walk expands infants’ access to the physical environment and prompts changes in their communicative behaviors. However, little is known about whether walking also shapes infants’ proximity to their adult social partners during everyday activities at home. Here we followed 89 infants (42 boys, 47 girls; 92% White, not Hispanic or Latino) longitudinally and documented connections between infant locomotion and infant-adult proximity on two timescales: (1) across developmental time, by comparing data from a session when infants could only crawl to a later session when they could walk (M walk onset = 12.15 months, range = 8-15); and (2) in real time, by testing whether the amount of time that infants spent in motion (regardless of their locomotor status) related to their interpersonal distance to adults. The developmental transition to walking corresponded to a significant, but modest, decrease in infant-adult proximity. Infants’ moment-to-moment locomotion, however, was strongly related to patterns of interpersonal distance: infants who spent more time in motion spent less time near adults and instigated more proximity transitions, resulting in shorter and more dispersed bouts of proximity throughout sessions. Findings shed new light on how infants’ motor achievements can reverberate across other domains of development, and how changes in infant development that researchers often observe over months arise from infants’ moment-to-moment experiences.     

Child and Youth Coaching in families experiencing complex and multiple problems: A longitudinal evaluation study

Studies investigating services for families experiencing complex and multiple problems have emphasized the need for more child-centred support. The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate whether providing child-centred services (Child and Youth Coaching) combined with family-focused services (Ten for the Future) is effective for children growing up in families experiencing complex and multiple problems. Children's psychosocial skills, emotional and behavioural problems, and the quality of their pedagogical environment were measured at baseline, 6 months and 12 months. Parent and coach reports of children indicated for Child and Youth Coaching (n = 57) and nonindicated children (n = 18) were analysed using repeated measures multilevel models. Both parents and coaches reported improved psychosocial skills of children, but changes were only significant for coach reports. In both reports, no significant decrease in emotional and behavioural problems was observed for both indicated and nonindicated children. Many children still experienced considerable problems at case closure. Furthermore, no significant improvement in quality of the pedagogical environment was observed in both groups. Given the limitations in this study, more research is needed to identify whether these findings can be replicated and attributed to the Child and Youth Coaching and Ten for the Future programmes.