Cluster designs to assess the prevalence of acute malnutrition by lot quality assurance sampling: a validation study by computer simulation

Summary.  Traditional lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) methods require simple random sampling to guarantee valid results. However, cluster sampling has been proposed to reduce the number of random starting points. This study uses simulations to examine the classification error of two such designs, a 67×3 (67 clusters of three observations) and a 33×6 (33 clusters of six observations) sampling scheme to assess the prevalence of global acute malnutrition (GAM). Further, we explore the use of a 67×3 sequential sampling scheme for LQAS classification of GAM prevalence. Results indicate that, for independent clusters with moderate intracluster correlation for the GAM outcome, the three sampling designs maintain approximate validity for LQAS analysis. Sequential sampling can substantially reduce the average sample size that is required for data collection. The presence of intercluster correlation can impact dramatically the classification error that is associated with LQAS analysis.     

Strategy versus sincerity in mean voting

This paper focuses on the mean vote procedure for choosing the quantity of a public good, a social choice rule that selects the mean of the quantities voted for. The available theoretical models of mean voting give rise to conflicting predictions about the extent of the strategic bias that might arise in the individual vote. An experiment has been run in order to assess whether the participants disclose their (induced) preferences in voting or whether they strategically manipulate their vote, and in the latter case, which variables impact upon the likelihood of strategic bias and to what extent.     

Societal Gender Inequality as Moderator of the Relationship Between Work–Life Fit and Subjective Well-Being: A Multilevel Analysis Across European Countries

Social Indicators Research - Social well-being of person who works in social services as well as hospital staff has a large effect on care quality and organizational efficiency. The aim of this...     

A Rational Decision Rule with Extreme Events

Risks induced by extreme events are characterized by small or ambiguous probabilities, catastrophic losses, or windfall gains. Through a new functional, that mimics the restricted Bayes-Hurwicz criterion within the Choquet expected utility approach, it is possible to represent the decisionmaker behavior facing both risky (large and reliable probability) and extreme (small or ambiguous probability) events. A new formalization of the precautionary principle (PP) is shown and a new functional, which encompasses both extreme outcomes and expectation of all the possible results for every act, is claimed.     

Corporate social responsibility among SMEs in Italy

Much of the scholarly discussion on CSR has focused on large corporations even though small and medium enterprises (SMEs) constitute the bulk of businesses in many countries of the world. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 99.9% of the corporations in Italy are SMEs employing fewer than 250 people. This study sought to explore the CSR among SMEs including whether they practice CSR as a strategic function, who the main stakeholders were for their CSR activities, the drivers of CSR, and the motivations to engage in CSR. Data were collected from three sources: a survey of executives of a sample of 105 SMEs; qualitative in-depth interviews of the owner–managers of five SMEs and élite interviews with opinion leaders. The sample organizations practiced CSR mainly through informal, internally oriented and relational methods with very little, if any, managerial and strategic approach. A large number of sample organizations viewed employees as the most important stakeholders for CSR communication whereas customers, suppliers, and business partners trailed far behind. Interestingly, the media, government, NGOs, and unions were relegated to the bottom of the list. Networks of personal relationships (including that of owner–managers and top executives) were frequently used to conduct CSR activities.     

Strategic monitoring of port authorities activities: Proposal of a multi-dimensional digital dashboard

Abstract

The consequence of port evolution is that port authorities (PA) around the world are modifying their nature and their role, acquiring more and more an active role in the governance of logistic systems and are often adopting managerial and entrepreneurial behaviours. This new role of PA requires the adoption of a complex approach to monitoring the performance of the single stakeholders and of the whole port. Existing studies on port performance consider only specific indicators of port performance such as operational and financial efficiency neglecting aspects like customer satisfaction, port security and port sustainability. This paper tries to fill this literature gap: (i) outlining an integrated multi-dimensional dashboard to monitor port performance in a strategic perspective; (ii) analysing the role of digital technology to support the PA in the implementation of the monitoring dashboard; (iii) defining the evolutionary stages of tools implementation in the strategic monitoring of PAs.     

Sectarian dynamics of multicultural norms and the law in Lebanon: warning for the future of Northern Ireland

The aim of this article is to show how the institutionalised multicultural political arrangements in Lebanon may have provided for a certain period a degree of local harmony and related toleration when national demographics were relatively stable (or demographic growth was somehow similar within groups or harmony was somehow imposed) but it has not been a force for the same once demographic change has (dramatically) occurred, since it automatically undermined the basis on which any agreement was founded. In addition, whatever harmony it does produce at the national level is not reciprocated at the local level. Indeed multiculturalism may well be a defining feature in the implosion of the Lebanon as a nation state. The reason for this is that any polity to be stable must be inclusive enough at the level of imagined community to encompass change without it being felt as loss by significant groups within the nation state. The institutionalised segregation that the multicultural settlement created in Lebanon does not provide for this inclusiveness since it is predicated on coalitions of exclusive groups (17 religious groups have a political representation in the Parliament) that (often) do not mix or share an imagined community (and, if they do, it is for short-term goals, such as recent coalitions predicated on inter-religious lines, i.e. the anti-Syrian 14 March Alliance) and hence any change is seen not as an inclusive experience to the whole but as exclusive and therefore (in the medium term) as a threat. This creates (long term) inbuilt instability and a permanently failing state. Building on a critique to multiculturalism and consociational theory (at least with reference to power-sharing) we further hypothesise that this situation may well be replicated in Northern Ireland since though in a less fragmented, however more radical separation, it appears to be following a similar trajectory.     

A Cross-National Study on the Antecedents of Work–Life Balance from the Fit and Balance Perspective

Drawing on the perceived work–family fit and balance perspective, this study investigates demands and resources as antecedents of work–life balance (WLB) across four countries (New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain), so as to provide empirical cross-national evidence. Using structural equation modelling analysis on a sample of 870 full time employees, we found that work demands, hours worked and family demands were negatively related to WLB, while job autonomy and supervisor support were positively related to WLB. We also found evidence that resources (job autonomy and supervisor support) moderated the relationships between demands and work–life balance, with high resources consistently buffering any detrimental influence of demands on WLB. Furthermore, our study identified additional predictors of WLB that were unique to some national contexts. For example, in France and Italy, overtime hours worked were negatively associated with WLB, while parental status was positively associated with WLB. Overall, the implications for theory and practice are discussed.