Patterns of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Utilization and Manufacturing Capabilities

The objectives of this research are first to empirically replicate Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) utilization taxonomies identified in foregoing research, second to investigate the relationship between patterns of AMT utilization and manufacturing capabilities attainment, and third to explore differences in context, and performance across AMT groups. Theories of performance frontiers and capability progression provide the basis for our hypotheses. Data were collected from 224 U.S. manufacturing plants in industries considered to have potential utilizations of AMTs. A cluster analysis of the data yields a solution that closely resembles a previous AMT utilization taxonomy, including four groups labeled, respectively, as Traditionalists, Generalists, High Investors, and Designers. Significant manufacturing capability differences across these four groups indicate that plants that utilize a broader scope of AMTs enjoy a greater breadth of manufacturing capabilities. The implied capability attainment pattern is consistent with cumulative capability theory. However, the results suggest that cost capability is not included in the capability mix when broad‐based AMT utilization is the enabler of capability gains. A post hoc exploration of the AMT groups indicates significant differences in performance across the groups. Collectively, the results extend prior research by providing added insights into the possible rationale and impact of AMT utilization patterns.     

Developments in gender and U.S. politics: A call for intersectionality

Since “women and politics” scholarship emerged in the 1970s, social, institutional, and theoretical developments have shaped the trajectory of U.S. scholarship in this field. First, the presence of women in formal politics has increased, albeit unevenly across parties and minority groups over time. Simultaneously, the capacity to study “political women” has become supported through institutional mechanisms such as academic journals and communities of practice. Moreover, gender as a critical focus of analysis has been developed and refined. In the literature on women and politics, the shift from studying sex differences to interrogating gendered political institutions is especially salient. This institutional focus, along with recent intersectional studies of gender and politics, increases opportunities for cross‐pollination of sociological and political science perspectives. In this review, I provide a brief history of the U.S. scholarship on gender and politics and map these relevant social, institutional, and theoretical advances. I highlight the value of recent intersectional contributions in this field and make the case for bringing partisanship—an increasingly salient political identity and structure—into intersectional approaches to gender and politics.     

Are dual and single exposures differently associated with clinical levels of trauma symptoms? Examining physical abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence among young children

A significant portion of children living in the United States have experienced trauma. Informed by the developmental traumatology model, we explored the effects of physical abuse and witnessing intimate partner violence (IPV) on childhood trauma symptoms. This study utilizes a convenience sample of 580 high‐risk children between 3 and 12 years who received services from one‐child advocacy centre during a 12‐month period. We performed a series of binary logistic regression analyses to examine if physical abuse, exposure to IPV, and dual exposure (i.e., both physical abuse and IPV) are distinctly associated with six trauma symptoms, including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress (PTS), dissociation, anger, and sexual concerns. The results indicated that dual exposure was predictive of all trauma symptoms, except for dissociation. Additionally, physical abuse was associated with PTS, anger, and sexual concerns, whereas exposure to IPV was associated with depression, PTS, and sexual concerns. Research and implications for practitioners working with young children are discussed.     

The Third Shift? Gender and Empowerment in a Women’s Ecotourism Cooperative

Ecotourism is lauded as a path toward sustainable development and women’s empowerment in rural areas around the world, but little is known about how gendered expectations shape its processes and outcomes. This paper employs an in-depth qualitative case study of a female-only ecotourism cooperative in rural Mexico to investigate how local gender dynamics influence women’s opportunities to benefit from ecotourism development. Findings show that women’s family and work commitments prevent their ability to devote the resources and energy necessary to make the cooperative successful. In this context, women are first expected to be wives and mothers, and to fulfill the substantial daily expectations associated with those roles. In addition, most women work outside the home. This leaves little time or energy for a “third shift” as ecotourism entrepreneurs running their own cooperative. Women put their own interests and goals on the back burner, because of the demands of the first two shifts. If ecotourism is to empower women, localized gender structures must be understood and addressed. Overlooking these challenges can mean that ecotourism projects, even those specifically aimed at empowering women, may only further burden women and reinforce gender models that perpetuate inequality.     

Patterns of Sensitivity to Parenting and Peer Environments: Early Temperament and Adolescent Externalizing Behavior

Although parenting behavior and friendship quality predict adolescent externalizing behaviors (EBs), individual differences in temperament may differentially affect susceptibility to these factors over time. In a multi‐method and multi‐informant study of 141 children followed prospectively from toddlerhood to adolescence, we tested the independent and interactive associations of age 3 reactive temperament (e.g., negative emotionality) and age 13 observed parenting (i.e., positive and negative behavior) and friendship (i.e., conflict and warmth), with multi‐informant ratings of age 15 aggression and rule‐breaking behavior. Negative parenting predicted growth in parent‐rated EB, but only for adolescents with early reactive temperament. Temperament did not affect sensitivity to positive parenting or friendship. Results are discussed in the context of differential susceptibility theory and intervention implications for adolescents.     

Collecting text messages from college students: Evaluating a novel methodology

Social interaction, particularly in older adolescents, increasingly involves computer‐mediated communication. Although studies of public computer‐mediated communication are increasingly common, studies of private text messaging remain rare. As approaches for obtaining such data evolve with technological advances, developmental scientists need designs in which to use such approaches that reduce sampling biases in both participants and text messages. In this study (n = 854; 46% male; 22% African American, 60% European American), we examined selection biases in the participant sample (i.e., factors associated with actual participation), procedural biases in the participant sample (i.e., factors related to failed data capture due to technological or procedural issues), and selection biases in the sample of text messages (i.e., based on self‐reported reasons for texting). Findings from our study suggest that studying human interaction directly through analysis of text message data is not only feasible, but also may be successfully undertaken with minimal biases regarding sample selection and text message selection among those who are engaged in research and engaged in text messaging outside of the study context. However, biases may occur depending on the type of platform (iPhone vs. Android) used by participants for texting.     

Stochastic superiority

This paper introduces a definition of stochastic superiority. One random variable is stochastically superior to another whenever it stochastically dominates the other after the risk in each random variable has been optimally reduced. Stochastic superiority is implied by stochastic dominance, but the reverse is not true. Stochastic superiority allows more pairs of random alternatives to be ranked, and efficient sets to be smaller. A very strong sufficient condition for stochastic superiority is demonstrated to also be necessary when preferences are risk averse. This condition provides a relatively easy way to conduct stochastic superiority tests. As an alternative to “almost stochastic dominance,” stochastic superiority also provides a natural solution to the “left tail problem” that arises often when comparing random alternatives.

     

Relationships between Sales Management Control, Territory Design, Salesforce Performance and Sales Organization Effectiveness

This research evaluates determinants of sales organization effectiveness in a sample of British companies, and contributes to an important new research stream by following recent empirical studies in the USA and Australia. We discuss a model of sales organization effectiveness determined by salesforce outcome performance and behavioural performance, as well as by the use of a behaviour-based control approach. Sales territory design is also considered as a particularly important managerial variable, which has received little analytical attention in the traditional literature, but which appears to be an important influence on the effectiveness of the sales operation. Our exploratory path analytical model suggests that sales territory design has a large effect on sales organization effectiveness both directly, and indirectly through its relationship with salesforce behavioural performance. These findings are somewhat different to those in similar studies in other countries, and suggest some important implications for managers as well as for researchers in this field.