The State of the Field in UK Management Research: Reflections of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) Panel

This paper reviews the state of the field of the sub-disciplines within UK management research, based upon the submissions of 94 UK higher education institutions to the Business and Management Studies Panel in the UK's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It offers observations on the UK model of the assessment of quality in, and funding of, research conducted in publicly funded higher education institutions.     

Openness in adoption: Challenging the narrative of historical progress

One significant change in adoption practice that has occurred over the last four decades is the shift away from an expectation of confidentiality towards an expectation of openness in adoption. Openness is typically conceived in terms of the level of contact between adoptive and birth families following adoption or the extent to which adoption is openly discussed within the adoptive family. While these shifts in practice have generated controversy, they are largely supported by research evidence and have become a feature of contemporary adoptive family life. As a result, the narrative that has emerged in relation to openness in adoption is one of historical progress. In this paper, I argue that the lived reality of adoption is less straightforward than this narrative suggests. An analysis of the social and cultural context in which adoption operates suggests instead that the persistent feature of adoption throughout this historical period of increasing openness can be more accurately described as a state of enduring ambiguity regarding the nature of post‐adoption relationships. The paper highlights the potentially damaging consequences of overlooking this aspect of adoptive family life and comments on the role of policy in shaping openness in adoption.     

Bayesian adjustment for unidirectional misclassification in ordinal covariates

In this paper, we study the identification of Bayesian regression models, when an ordinal covariate is subject to unidirectional misclassification. Xia and Gustafson [Bayesian regression models adjusting for unidirectional covariate misclassification. Can J Stat. 2016;44(2):198–218] obtained model identifiability for non-binary regression models, when there is a binary covariate subject to unidirectional misclassification. In the current paper, we establish the moment identifiability of regression models for misclassified ordinal covariates with more than two categories, based on forms of observable moments. Computational studies are conducted that confirm the theoretical results. We apply the method to two datasets, one from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), and the other from Translational Research Investigating Underlying Disparities in Acute Myocardial infarction Patients Health Status (TRIUMPH).     

Good Friendships among Children: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

Ethical dimensions of friendship have rarely been explicitly addressed as aspects of friendship quality in studies of children's peer relationships. This study identifies aspects of moral virtue significant for friendship, as a basis for empirically investigating the role of ethical qualities in children's friendship assessments and aspirations. We introduce a eudaimonic conception of friendship quality, identify aspects of moral virtue foundational to such quality, review and contest some grounds on which children have been regarded as not mature enough to have friendships that require virtue, and report a qualitative study of the friendship assessments and aspirations of children aged nine and ten (n = 83). In focus group sessions conducted in ten schools across Great Britain, moral qualities figured prominently in children's assessments of friendship quality. The findings provide evidence of children having friendships exhibiting mutual respect, support, and valuing of each other's good character.     

HPV vaccine acceptance among a sample of Southern men who have sex with men: A comparison of younger and older men

Objectives: Do short, online educational messages about the human papillomavirus (HPV) influence younger and older men who have sex with men (MSM) differently? Second, what are the HPV knowledge levels and risk perceptions of Southern MSM living outside of major metropolitan areas? Methods: This study draws on participants who completed an anonymous online survey asking about their knowledge, risk assessment, and vaccine acceptance regarding HPV. Results: Knowledge about HPV was low among the MSM in this study. After reading a one-page information intervention, vaccine acceptability increased by a statistically significant amount among both a Younger and Older cohort but risk perception only increased among the younger respondents. Single men regardless of age cohort reported sharper increases in perceived risk after the intervention, but relationship status did not produce significant differences in vaccine acceptability. Conclusion: Online, brief interventions may be effective means of increasing motivation to vaccinate among Southern MSM.     

A new estimator of proportion with a linear function using data from two-decks randomized response model

A new estimator for estimating the proportion of a potentially sensitive attribute in survey sampling has been introduced by solving a linear equation. The proposed estimator has been compared with the estimator proposed by Odumade and Singh (2009) with equal protection to all of the respondents. The asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator are investigated through exact numerical illustrations for different choices of parameters. A non randomized response approach has been suggested. A scope for further research has also been pointed out.     

On An Intriguing Distributional Identity

For a continuous random variable X with support equal to (a, b), with c.d.f. F, and g: Ω₁ → Ω₂ a continuous, strictly increasing function, such that Ω₁∩Ω₂?(a, b), but otherwise arbitrary, we establish that the random variables F(X) ? F(g(X)) and F(g^{? 1}(X)) ? F(X) have the same distribution. Further developments, accompanied by illustrations and observations, address as well the equidistribution identity U ? ψ(U) = ^dψ^{? 1}(U) ? U for U ～ U(0, 1), where ψ is a continuous, strictly increasing and onto function, but otherwise arbitrary. Finally, we expand on applications with connections to variance reduction techniques, the discrepancy between distributions, and a risk identity in predictive density estimation.