A fractured journey of growth: making meaning of a ‘Broken’ childhood and parental mental ill-health

The psychopathological impact of parental mental ill-health on children is well known. However, little research explores positive and negative interpretations of such exposure in childhood, from the adult child's perspective. Using interpretative phenomenological Analysis this study sought subjective interpretations of the ‘lived’ experiences of growing up in a family with parental mental ill-health. A purposive sample of seven adult children provided data for analysis through semi-structured interviews. One superordinate theme: A fractured journey of growth to adulthood, overarched six subordinate themes. Four themes captured stigma, shame, social isolation and betrayal. Juxtaposed with this, two themes captured purposeful redefinition of self and psychological growth. This study captures the chronicity of traumatic distress and sense of betrayal experienced by these participants in childhood through unrelenting exposure to parental mental ill-health. However, despite unpredictability, fear, and neglect in childhood, they identified the emergence of inner strengths in adult life: unexpected growth in empathy and compassion, high resourcefulness, and personal authenticity through higher education. Findings highlight that positively redefining ‘self’ in adult life is possible in the aftermath of childhood trauma associated with parental mental ill-health. Implications for therapy include: (a) moving forward from childhood trauma and (b) managing ongoing family dynamics in adult-life.     

Strategic role of public relations in enterprise strategy,governance and sustainability—A normative framework

The purpose of the study was to suggest a normative framework for the development of an organization's enterprise (societal role/stakeholder) strategy, indicating its relationship with governance, sustainability, and CSR. The normative framework contains two dimensions: Enterprise strategy is developed within the context of enterprise governance as well as social and environmental sustainability and responsibility, to achieve the organization's strategic non-financial goals (the sustainability dimension). Corporate strategy is developed within the context of corporate governance as well as economic sustainability and responsibility, to achieve strategic financial/economic goals (the business dimension). PR/communication management plays a strategic role in enterprise strategy development but a support role in corporate strategy development. The development of enterprise strategy necessitates a Triple Bottom Line approach to strategic management.     

High Stakes in High Technology: High-Tech Market Values as Options

In science-based industries, world-class scientists drive the most successful firms. These scientists are more likely to follow high-stakes, high-returns R&D strategies instead of more predictable incremental strategies. We develop an options pricing model in which the probability of stock-price jumps increases with knowledge capital. GMM estimates show the probability of stock-price jumps increases with three measures of knowledge capital intensity, two of which can be reasonably estimated contemporaneously. The model explains most variation in biotech firm market values. Firms with two standard deviations more knowledge capital are valued 10–50% more than firms with mean values of all variables.     

Shared labor and love

The study on job sharing couples and employers in academia found that, for the couples, the shared and flexible work schedule is conducive to increased cooperation and sharing of work and domestic-related activities, independent of gender, and to enhanced intimacy. Because of how the couples use their “surplus” time, they are working more, not less. Employers recognize the increased productivity, but tend to attribute it to their special couple(s) and not to the alternative work structure. Many employers resist job sharing because part-time work is not considered professional.     

All Ages and None: Commentary on Helene Moglen's Ageing and Transageing

Helene Moglen's article is especially welcome, given the paucity of psychoanalytic reflection on ageing. She usefully describes possible ways of managing the losses of ageing through accessing the multiple, decentered self-states embedded in our personal histories. However, I have some queries on her use of contrasting psychic topologies. In particular I wonder whether she is sometimes in danger of seeing images of former selves as being associatively “recovered” in the work of mourning that might be better seen as the more illusive “production” of presumptively anterior contexts and states of mind in the present. I also question how successfully Moglen's positioning of her notion of “transaging” somewhere between “transgender” and “transsexuality” serves to loosen up the vicious binary between “young” and “old. I would appreciate closer attention to the dreaded “feminization” of old age, noting the toxic sexism permeating cultures of ageing. Nevertheless, Moglen offers an excellent opening into this troubling topic.     

Kernel Density Estimator From Ranked Set Samples

We study kernel density estimator from the ranked set samples (RSS). In the kernel density estimator, the selection of the bandwidth gives strong influence on the resulting estimate. In this article, we consider several different choices of the bandwidth and compare their asymptotic mean integrated square errors (MISE). We also propose a plug-in estimator of the bandwidth to minimize the asymptotic MISE. We numerically compare the MISE of the proposed kernel estimator (having the plug-in bandwidth estimator) to its simple random sampling counterpart. We further propose two estimators for a symmetric distribution, and show that they outperform in MISE all other estimators not considering symmetry. We finally apply the methods in this article to analyzing the tree height data from Platt et al. (1988 Platt, W.J., Evans, G.M., Rathbun, S.L. (1988). The population dynamics of long-lived conifer (Pinus plaustris) (1988). Amer. Natrualist 131:491–525.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Chen et al. (2003 Chen, Z., Bai, Z., Sinha, B.K. (2003). Ranked Set Sampling: Theory and Applications. New York: Springer. [Google Scholar]).     

Growing by Leaps and Inches: Creative Destruction, Real Cost Reduction, and Inching Up

Most firms achieve perfective progress, incrementally improving commodities or productivity. But technological progress is concentrated in a few firms achieving metamorphic progress: forming or transforming industries with technological breakthroughs (e.g., biotechnology, lasers, semiconductors, nanotechnology). Unless congruent with incumbents' science and technology base, metamorphic progress promotes entry. Scientific breakthroughs embodied in discovering scientists, protected by natural excludability and transferred by learning-by-doing-with at the bench generally drive metamorphic progress. Embodied knowledge is rivalrous and leads to entry and industry dominance by star scientist–linked firms. Incorporating this scientific entrepreneurial process is essential to improving—if not transforming—endogenous growth models.     

Company spokesperson vs. customer testimonial: Investigating quoted spokesperson credibility and impact in business-to-business communication

Through the framework of source credibility, this study examines the impact of quoting a company executive versus a customer testimonial in a business communication context. A 2 (spokesperson) × 7 (media channel) full factorial experiment (N = 514) showed partial support for enhanced perceived credibility of information conveyed by a customer testimonial compared to a company spokesperson in independent and controlled media channels online. When evaluated through a measure of media credibility, a customer spokesperson rates higher than a company spokesperson. In addition, a product is viewed more positively by an audience receiving information quoting a customer spokesperson rather than a company spokesperson. An audience with low business expertise considers both types of spokespersons as more trustworthy than a high-expertise audience; however, a customer is considered more trustworthy than a company spokesperson. The study provides public relations professionals with insight in determining the use of spokespersons when communicating to businesspeople.