Codes of ethics and firm size: A stakeholder approach to strategic planning

A firm's capital budgeting and strategic planning decisions have the potential to affect many groups of people called stakeholders. A stakeholder is any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the firm's objectives. This study examines whether the presence of a code of ethics that specifically addresses capital budgeting/strategic planning decisions will significantly raise the awareness of social responsibility during the long-run planning process. This study also examines whether firm size is associated with the awareness of social responsibility during the long-run planning process. Support was found that a code of ethics that addresses long-range planning is associated with higher awareness during the planning process. Firm size was not found to be statistically different.     

Competitive Advantage, Quality Strategy and the Role of Marketing

The improvement of product and service quality has been widely discussed in the literature as an appropriate competitive strategy for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. However, neither the linkage between competitive strategy and quality, nor the role of marketing in the implementation of quality-based competitive strategy, has received detailed attention in the marketing and strategy literatures. This paper explores the interface between marketing and quality management in seller organizations, by developing a contingency model of quality strategy. This model is grounded in the literatures of marketing, strategy and quality management, and the perceptions of managers uncovered in exploratory interviews.     

Mixed Levels of Uncertainty in Complex Policy Models

The characterization and treatment of uncertainty poses special challenges when modeling indeterminate or complex coupled systems such as those involved in the interactions between human activity, climate and the ecosystem. Uncertainty about model structure may become as, or more important than, uncertainty about parameter values. When uncertainty grows so large that prediction or optimization no longer makes sense, it may still be possible to use the model as a behavioral test bed to examine the relative robustness of alternative observational and behavioral strategies. When models must be run into portions of their phase space that are not well understood, different submodels may become unreliable at different rates. A common example involves running a time stepped model far into the future. Several strategies can be used to deal with such situations. The probability of model failure can be reported as a function of time. Possible alternative surprises can be assigned probabilities, modeled separately, and combined. Finally, through the use of subjective judgments, one may be able to combine, and over time shift between models, moving from more detailed to progressively simpler order-of-magnitude models, and perhaps ultimately, on to simple bounding analysis.     

GAPS between MFT supervision assumptions and common practice: suggested best practices

This article summarizes gaps between assumptions that appear in the literature, research, and accepted standards for marital and family therapy (MFT) supervision, and the common practice of supervisors. Issues that stem from these gaps are highlighted and recommendations are made for closing them. In an effort to refine the standard of practice for MFT supervision, best practice recommendations are offered for MFT supervision.     

The Correspondence Between Fertility Intentions and Behavior in the United States

Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we describe the correspondence between intended family size and observed fertility for US men and women in the 1957–64 birth cohorts. Mean fertility intentions calculated from reports given in the mid‐20s modestly overstate completed fertility. But discrepancies between stated intent and actual fertility are common—the stated intent at age 24 (for both women and men) is more likely to miss than to match completed fertility. We focus on factors that predict which women and men will have fewer or more children than intended. Consistent with life‐course arguments, those unmarried, childless, or (for women) still in school at approximately age 24 were most likely to underachieve their intended parity (i.e., had fewer children than intended at age 24). We discuss how such discrepancies between intentions and behavior may cumulate to produce sizable cross‐group fertility differences.     

An Examination of the Relationship Between Gambling and Antisocial Behavior

Problem gambling is significantly more prevalent in forensic populations than in the general population. Although some previous work suggests that gambling and antisocial behavior are related, the extent and nature of this relationship is unclear. Both gambling and antisocial behavior are forms of risk-taking, and may therefore share common determinants. We investigated whether individual differences in personality traits associated with risk-taking, the Big Five personality traits, and antisocial tendencies predicted gambling and antisocial behavior among 180 male students recruited for a study of gambling (35.0% non-problem gamblers, 36.7% low-risk gamblers, 21.7% problem gamblers, and 6.7% pathological gamblers). All forms of gambling and antisocial behavior were significantly correlated. Personality traits associated with risk-acceptance explained a significant portion of the variance in problem gambling, general gambling involvement, and all forms of antisocial behavior. Antisocial tendencies (aggression and psychopathic tendencies) explained a significant portion of additional variance in severe antisocial behavior but not moderate or minor antisocial behavior. When controlling for personality traits associated with risk-acceptance, the relationship between gambling and antisocial behavior was greatly diminished. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that gambling and antisocial behavior are associated because they are, in part, different manifestations of similar personality traits.     

E-optimal designs for three treatments

E-optimality is studied for three treatments in an arbitrary n-way heterogeneity setting. In some cases maximal trace designs cannot be E-optimal. When there is more than one E-optimal design for a given setting, the best with respect to all reasonable criteria is determined.