Restructuring of the Financial Industry: The Disappearance of Locally Owned Traditional Financial Services in Rural America

Restructuring in the financial services industry has altered the relationship between small business owners and capital. In the past small businesses have relied on relational, or soft data, lending from locally owned banks for capital. The proliferation of absentee‐owned local branch networks brought standardized practices, thus eliminating the autonomy of local loan officers to utilize soft data in loan decisions. In this article we examine the changes in the percentage of traditional financial services that are locally owned in three county types: metropolitan, micropolitan, and noncore. We utilize the Longitudinal Business Database at the U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies. We examine changes in local ownership of traditional financial services between 1976 and 2007. We find that the rate of decline of local ownership has been greatest in the noncore (most rural) counties. We also explore to what extent these patterns are related to the emergence of alternative financial services during the same period. We find that such alternative services are growing in all three county types, but at rates not significantly different than the population growth for these county types. We supplement our analysis with data from qualitative interviews with small business owners throughout rural Texas. We conclude with a discussion of implications and plans for future research.     

In Control or Fatalistically Ruled? The Sense of Mastery among Working Canadians

Using data from a 2011 nationally representative sample of Canadian workers (N = 5,576), the present study evaluates the social–structural determinants of the sense of mastery. Three main contributions emerge. First, we document that each of the main components of socioeconomic status—education, income, occupation, and economic hardship—have distinct total, indirect, and net associations with mastery. The well‐educated report more mastery because of their higher earnings—but exposure to more role blurring and work–family conflict offset what would otherwise be their even higher levels of mastery. Second, job‐related demands and resources have largely independent associations with mastery, but our analyses also reveal some key areas of overlap. Third, role‐blurring activities—and their connections with work‐to‐family conflict and family‐to‐work conflict—offer unique expansions to the overall narrative of mastery, with unexpected explanatory and suppression effects. We interpret each of these observations in an effort to advance recent theoretical perspectives about mastery. À partir de données recueillies en 2011 auprès d'un échantillon représentatif national de travailleurs canadiens (n = 5,576), cette étude examine les déterminants sociostructurels de la maitrise de soi. Trois principales contributions découlent de cette étude. Premièrement, chaque composante du statut socioéconomique, soit l’éducation, le revenu, la profession de même que la précarité économique, a une association distincte et indirecte avec la maitrise de soi. Par exemple, les travailleurs instruits ressentent un plus grand sentiment de maitrise de soi dû à leur revenu supérieur. Toutefois, l'ambigüité de rôle et le conflit travail‐famille, plus fréquents chez ces derniers, atténuent cette relation. Deuxièmement, les demandes et les ressources liées au travail sont indirectement associées avec la maitrise de soi. Cependant, nos analyses démontrent que certains secteurs importants se chevauchent. Troisièmement, les liens entre les secteurs d'activités pour lesquelles il y a ambigüité de rôle et les conflits travail‐famille et les conflits famille‐travail permettent de mieux comprendre le concept de maitrise de soi chez les travailleurs canadiens. Nos analyses démontrent des effets inattendus explicatifs et de suppression. Nous interprétons chacune des ces observations en vue de faire avancer les perspectives théoriques récentes en ce qui a trait à la maitrise de soi.     

The use of vignettes to empower effective responses to attempted sexual assault

Objective: Women assertively resisting sexual aggression have the best chances of avoiding completed rape. Especially with acquaintances, there are significant social and psychological barriers to resistance. Novel vignettes depicting acquaintance rape were designed to enhance self-efficacy, reduce unrealistic optimism, and empower assertive resistance. Participants: The data were collected using a Web-based survey of 449 female college students from multiple universities in August–October 2014. Methods: Between-subjects mixed-methods design. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of four vignettes and complete self-report measures of personal vulnerability, self-efficacy, and beliefs and intention about resistance. Results: Although vignettes did not impact self-efficacy, one vignette enhanced perceived controllability and decreased unrealistic optimism. Women who read about completed acquaintance rape described intention to use physically assertive responses at double the rate of women reading about successful resistance. Conclusions: As low-cost, easily disseminated materials, vignettes about sexual assault may enhance campus prevention efforts.     

The Alliance Experience Transfer Effect: The Case of Industry Convergence in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry

A central premise of the industry change literature is that firms change their strategic actions when an industry changes. Industry convergence (IC), the blending of boundaries between industries creating competition among firms that previously did not compete, is increasingly impacting many industries and is a salient case of industry change. Acquisitions are an important action shaping the course of IC because they trigger imitation and bandwagon effects further accelerating IC. This paper focuses on why and when learning from alliances reduces uncertainty resulting in acquisitions during IC: an ‘alliance experience transfer effect’. We demonstrate the utility of this mechanism for the substitution‐based form of IC that occurred between the telecommunications equipment and computer networking industries. Our key insight is that when the extent of IC is low there are significant transfer effects but, as the extent of IC increases, firms have access to an expanding volume and diversity of information sources that reduce uncertainty, thus weakening the transfer effect mechanism. We contribute to the alliance–acquisition relationship and learning literatures by demonstrating that the alliance experience transfer effect mechanism explains changes in firm strategic action (alliancing and acquiring) as the extent of IC changes. We also introduce a semi‐convergence perspective by directly measuring the extent of IC.     

A monte carlo evaluation of response surface analysis based on paired-comparison data

The use of the logit transformation on paired-comparison data in the weighted least squares analysis of response surfaces for aesthetic qualities of products is discussed. Monte Carlo simulations are employed to investigate the small sample properties of the estimators and test statistics. A secondary objective of the Monte Carlo simulations is the comparison of two transformation procedures. The simulations are of standard-item paired-compar-ison experiments in which ties are not allowed.     

Moments of suprema of random variables

The supremum of random variables representing a sequence of rewards is of interest in establishing the existence of optimal stopping rules. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for existence of moments of sup_n(X_n ? c_n) and sup_n(S_n ? c_n) where X₁, X₂, … are i.i.d. random variables, S_n = X₁ + … + X_n, and c_n = (nL(n))^1/r, 0 < r < 2, L = 1, L = log, and L = log log. Following Cohn (1974), “rates of convergence” results are used in the proof.     

Subjective priors for the dirichlet process

This paper reviews difficulties with the interpretation and use of the prior parameter u required in the Dirichlet approach to nonpararnetric Bayesian statistics. Two subjective prior distributions are introduced and studied. These priors are obtained computationally by requiring that the experimenter specify certain constraints.     

Adaptable Careers: Maximizing Less and Exploring More

Today, young adults are expected to decide between educational, vocational, and job options and to make the best choice possible. Career literatures emphasize the importance of young adults' career decision making but also acknowledge the problems related to making these decisions. The authors argue that career counselors could support clients' intuitive processing of career information and help their clients to develop a positive and flexible view of the self and the environment while diminishing concerns about accountability for and irreversibility of career decisions. The authors argue that career adaptability rather than decision making should become the focal concept of career theory and practice.     

Toward a More Complex View of Career Exploration

This article examines the concept of career exploration in adult populations. In contrast to the prevailing positive view of career exploration, the authors present a more complex and balanced perspective of this process, addressing some of the barriers to career exploration and the applicability of this concept to different populations. They examine differences between voluntary exploration and forced or chance exploration, discuss how relationships may be barriers to exploration, consider various outcomes of career explorations, and call for a more holistic view of the individual in career counseling.