Ethnomethodology and Marxism: Their use for critical theorizing

Conclusion Each theory and, ultimately, school of theorizing exposes and criticizes the theorizing of others, and at the same time contains false or misleading statements. Theory as it is must rest on some presuppositions. Thus, Marxism exposes the flaws and lies of capitalism while positing another world view-Marxism—which it does not treat critically. Marxism also provides a critique of positivistic thinking. In The Grundrisse, Marx engages in a dialogue with economists and philosophers of his day. His theory emerges out of the rejection of their theory. Ethnomethodology can be seen as critique of positivism, too. It can also tell us something about Marxism, as some of its concerns are similar, although the methods are dissimilar. At the same time, ethnomethodology denies us certain information about itself. Theorists, then, question others and not themselves. Theory can be seen as a product of inquiry; the theorist shows only the product and hides what made the product. Indeed, just as the statistician reveals a correlation between two variables and omits all the common sense reasoning that went into the process (a method of theorizing ethnomethodologists criticize), so does the ethnomethodologist or Marxist omit, to a great extent, the process of theorizing involved.Thus, while neither form of theorizing, taken literally, can be critical (for to be critical, one must sometimes suspend belief in one's own theory, bracket it, or see it as strange), either form, if taken metaphorically (and in a way that is unfaithful to Marxism and ethnomethodology), can be used for critique.The ethnomethodological and Marxist critiques of social information, as in their processual framework and their emphasis on the thinking individual, provide critiques of contemporary society and an impetus to try to change it. Links between the two schools of theorizing would perhaps help overcome the deficiencies of each mode of theorizing. Taylor, Walton, and Young advocated (although they never carried it out) building a bridge in criminology so to speak, between ethnomethodology and Marxism. The advantage would be to enable us to escape from the straitjacket of an economic determinism and the relativism of some subjective approaches to a theory of contradiction in a social structure which recognizes in deviance the acts of men (men and women) in the process of actively making, rather than passively taking, the external world.Our special thanks to Ishna Abrams, Igor Freund, and Peter Schwarzburg for their tireless assistance.     

A LOOK AT THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL AS A TOOL TO ASSIST FACULTY TEACHING EVALUATIONS

The evaluation of the effectiveness of faculty teaching is a difficult process. This paper presents the results of an experimental empirical investigation into the possibility of using a psycho-linguistic measurement technique, the Semantic Differential, to measure faculty communication of terminology to students. This measurement could be used to supplement other teaching evaluation devices. The paper determines a set of “key concepts,” derives a set of S.D. meanings from a Faculty to act as a standard, and measures student meanings at the beginning and end of an introductory course. These sets of meanings are then compared.     

APPLICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION

Organizations are in constant interaction with their environment. This phenomenon has been termed in the literature as the environment-organizational interface. An organization acquires information concerning changes in its environment via some scanning system. This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation of the scanning process. The relationships of scanning to different environmental states is discussed and various propositions advanced. Different environmental states (stable versus dynamic) are moderated by the determinants of hierarchical levels and functional specialties in the firm.     

SIMULATION AND THE CAPITAL ASSET PRICING MODEL: A COMMENT*

This paper challenges Lewellen and Long's contention that a Hertz-type simulation generates irrelevant data for the evaluation of capital expenditure opportunities. The conclusion is reached that an estimate of an asset's “own risk” may be a vital first step in estimating its covariance properties with the market index. A method of incorporating the information generated by simulation into the capital asset pricing model is also provided.     

论停滞与失败--思想意识形态与历史:两个初步的问题(之一)

理学作为一种思想体系受到朝廷的推崇,并作为科举考试的组成部分。在20世纪,对理学的看法发生了分歧。有人认为理学是智识与科学进步的障碍,中国要想走向现代化就必须摆脱理学。关于中国在12世纪后进入长时期停滞的看法,历史学界一般都不赞成了,但读者的这种看法还比较强烈。对于中国历史的一些基本特征的认识需要重新检验,比如中国文化不是只有一个起源;中国并非与外界隔离并拒绝外界影响;中国的政治体制不是绝对独裁;中国文化并没有一个纯正的“正统”或“道统”(orthodox);中国人并非没有自主的完整实体的“自我”观念。学者在实际研究中往往把中国当作一个实体民族或一个连续不断的文明体,这种观念并不太准确,实际是误解了China的原意。     

Japanese marketing strategies in the United Kingdom

This article is based on a study which examined hypotheses about Japanese marketing using a matched sample of British companies and their major Japanese competitors. Japanese subsidiaries in Britain were shown to be much more marketing-oriented, more responsive to strategic opportunities, and more single-minded in their pursuit of market share. Organizationally, there were few differences between the two groups. The Japanese subsidiaries, however, were more inclined to use product or market-based divisions and continuous, informal planning and control procedures. The result is that managerial focus and responsibility are centred upon overall product-market rather than financial or production performance, with continuous feedback facilitating rapid adaptation and implementation of marketing plans and strategy.     

Arriving at a strategic theory of the firm

The theory of the firm seeks to explain the existence and boundaries of the firm in relation to the market. Since the pioneering work of Coase (The nature of the firm. Economica , 4 , 386–405, 1937), economics has developed a whole family of theories that focus on the ability of firms to economize on certain costs of using markets. More recently, researchers in strategic management have published several theories of the firm that have tended to emphasize the benefits of incorporation rather than the costs of using the market. Although researchers in the strategy profession have tentatively labeled their work as 'moving towards' a strategic theory of the firm, economists have been very critical of existing approaches. This paper seeks to begin 'arriving' at a strategic theory of the firm by addressing these criticisms and offering an integration of the strategic and economic perspectives within an institutional framework. The paper concludes with future directions for research in the theory of the firm.     

Explaining the demand for structured financial products: survey and field experiment evidence

In many countries structured investment products are popular among retail investors. We explain the demand for these products using unique field data where we let subjects freely design their “favorite” structured product. Results suggest that the supply with capital protected products (guarantee certificates) might indeed be demand-driven. This does not seem to be the case for other product categories where marketing and sales practices might play a more important role. In a survey among financial practitioners we find furthermore that a demand for capital protected products can be explained by loss aversion and saving motifs, e.g. for buying a house.     

Consumer Awareness, Understanding and Usage of Unit Pricing

The debate continues over whether prescribed quantities or unit pricing offers the best method to enable consumers to make value-for-money comparisons. In theory, the 'informed' consumer should benefit from being given unit-price information to identify optimum purchases; in practice, however, it would appear that many consumers do not use the data. Although unit pricing can reduce the level of confusion caused by large product ranges and large numbers of unique size–price combinations, results of a survey of over 1000 people showed that: 31% of the sample did not understand how unit pricing was meant to help them compare products; 35% could not be bothered to look at unit prices and 28% stated that unit pricing was too difficult to use. Those least likely to look at unit prices are women, the least educated and consumers aged 18–34. The research investigated why consumers do not use unit-price information and found: some consumers do not possess the cognitive ability to process the information and feel unit pricing is too complicated to use; some products are not comparable, which makes unit prices misleading; many shops do not provide unit-price information; unit-price information was felt unnecessary when evaluating products with few or no alternative sizes or brands; unit-price comparisons take too much time; consumers use simpler strategies for getting value for money, e.g. volume discount heuristic, own brands, special offers, x% free, reward points, etc. The paper explores policy and retailer implications for unit pricing and examines recommendations for government.