The Contingent-Claims Approach to Investment Decisions*

This paper presents a contingent-claims approach to project valuation when capital expenditures are made sequentially over time. It focuses on an important facet of sequential investment projects that the firm can undertake—or pass up projects—as more information becomes available. The contingent-claims approach takes account of this important feature of firms' investment decision process, whereas the traditional capital budgeting procedure does not. Since the traditional method does not reflect the options nature of investment opportunities, it underestimates the value of sequential investment projects. As a result, a naive implementation of the traditional capital budgeting procedure could result in rejecting profitable projects. The extent of undervaluation associated with the traditional capital budgeting procedure is greater when the correlation between the random component of the future asset value and that of the required capital expenditure is smaller and/or when the growth rate of the required capital expenditure is higher.     

Pathways from workplace flexibility to turnover intention: Role of work–family conflict,family–work conflict,and job satisfaction

This study examined the prevalence of workplace flexibility and the mechanisms that allow workplace flexibility to influence turnover intentions through work–family and family–work conflicts and job satisfaction among low‐wage workers in South Korea. Participants included 250 low‐wage workers whose monthly salary was less than 2 million Korean won (approx. $1,900). The study results indicate that low‐wage workers have limited access to workplace flexibility and that workplace flexibility plays a significant protective role in reducing their turnover intention, indirectly by decreasing work–family conflicts and enhancing job satisfaction. This article also discusses the implications of these findings for labor policy and social work practice.     

Opinions toward suicide: Cross-national evaluation of cultural and religious effects on individuals

This study evaluates the role that religious and cultural values have on individual opinions toward suicide worldwide. Using multilevel modeling with data from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey (42,299 individuals in 43 countries), the current study is designed to analyze the effect of individual (i.e., micro-level), and country (i.e., macro-level) characteristics on opinions toward suicide. Specifically, cultural values, religious affiliation, religious importance, and church attendance are analyzed at both the individual and country levels to evaluate the impact of individual and country level effects on opinions toward suicide. The results show that individual opinions toward suicide are influenced by individual belief as well as by the cultural and religious characteristics of their country. The results suggest that evaluation of individual opinions toward controversial behavior should account for the unique and cross-interaction effects of micro- and macro-level effects.     

Disability beliefs and help-seeking behavior of depressed Chinese-American patients in a primary care setting

In this study the authors assessed the effects of disability beliefs, conceptualization and labeling of emotional disabilities, and perceived barriers on help-seeking behaviors among depressed Chinese Americans in a primary care setting. Forty-two Chinese Americans participated in semistructured interviews using established psychological measures and open-ended questions adapted from the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue. The authors found that care utilization appears to be complicated by somatization of emotional problems, variations in causal attribution to depression, barriers to receiving mental health care, and the burden of comorbid physical conditions. Their findings highlight the importance of addressing these issues and educating patients about body-mind dialectic common to depression.     

Monitoring the coefficient of variation using a variable sample size and sampling interval control chart

This article proposes a CV chart by using the variable sample size and sampling interval (VSSI) feature to improve the performance of the basic CV chart, for detecting small and moderate shifts in the CV. The proposed VSSI CV chart is designed by allowing the sample size and the sampling interval to vary. The VSSI CV chart's statistical performance is measured by using the average time to signal (ATS) and expected average time to signal (EATS) criteria and is compared with that of existing CV charts. The Markov chain approach is employed in the design of the chart.     

A direct procedure for monitoring the coefficient of variation using a variable sample size scheme

A variable sample size (VSS) scheme directly monitoring the coefficient of variation (CV), instead of monitoring the transformed statistics, is proposed. Optimal chart parameters are computed based on two criteria: (i) minimizing the out-of-control ARL (ARL₁) and (ii) minimizing the out-of-control ASS (ASS₁). Then the performances are compared between these two criteria. The advantages of the proposed chart over the VSS chart based on the transformed statistics in the existing literature are: the former (i) provides an easier alternative as no transformation is involved and (ii) requires less number of observations to detect a shift when ASS₁ is minimized.     

Wrapping and Unwrapping Emotions: Clinical Practice with East Asian Immigrant Elders

Using the cultural norm of the way gifts are wrapped, unwrapped, and exchanged as a metaphor for interpersonal connections, this paper presents the way therapists can establish therapeutic relationships with East Asian clients who do not express emotions openly. We first discuss the ways in which emotions are conceptualized, experienced, and expressed in East Asian cultures. We then present vignettes of our work with older Chinese and Japanese immigrant women to illustrate the importance of therapist authenticity and co-construction of the therapeutic relationship. Using the framework of relational/cultural theory, which posits that healing takes place in the context of mutually empathic growth-fostering relationships, we illustrate the importance of establishing mutuality between therapist and client as a form of cultural empathy.     

Limites et pertinence de la guerre juste face au terrorisme et aux nouvelles guerres

This article aims to examine the pertinence as well as the limits of the just war theory in order to apprehend the ethical issues raised by contemporary forms of political violence. Terrorism is undoubtedly an extreme case of political violence that puts to the test the theoretical and practical relevance of jus ad bellum and jus in bello principles. From a sociological point of view, it appears necessary to understand contemporary terrorism within the historical evolution of armed conflicts and under the light of current research devoted to the concept of ‘new wars’. Although I will argue that just war theory does not sufficiently take into account current studies on the empirical features of contemporary wars, it is nonetheless possible to salvage the theoretical and practical relevance of just war theory in a more specified sense. From a philosophical point of view, the goal of this article is to confront the theoretical and practical relevance of just war theory with the current body of research in the field of the sociology of war in order to assess both its limitations and its potential scope.