Selecting managers for cross-border assignments: building value into the process

Selecting cross-border managers simply by relying on an assessment of technical competence, isolated and domestic management success as well as perceived commitment to the organization has become inadequate. Multiple value orientations associated with cross-cultural business performance need to be examined as an integral part of the selection process. Value orientations associated with cultural identity, cross-border business focus and personal and professional development, are missing from and need to be taken into consideration when selecting managers for cross-border assignments.
A cross-cultural manager typology is developed, which identifies four cross-border manager 'types'. These 'types' are described as (1) transnationalist, (2) internationalist, (3) ethnocentrist and (4) transitionalist. The implications of these 'types' for the selection of cross-border managers are then explored within the context of, and interplay between, three value orientations. First, how and why managers value their cultural identity. Secondly, how and why managers value involvement in cross-border business activity. Finally, how these two value orientations are better understood based upon personal and professional development.     

Managing Capital Market Reactions to Corporate Social Resposibility

Although overlooked to some degree by non-marketing disciplines, the discipline of marketing has contributed significantly to the body of knowledge on business strategy over the last two decades. This paper evaluates these contributions, examines how they complement dominant non-marketing theories of business strategy, and shows how marketing offers a generalized theory of competition that integrates the concepts of both marketing and non-marketing theories of business strategy.     

Creating the Final Conversations Scale: A Measure of End-of-Life Relational Communication with Terminally Ill Individuals

Final conversations (FCs) are defined as the communicative interactions, both verbal and nonverbal, that occur between terminally ill patients and relational partners. In this study, the “Final Conversations Scale” was developed and tested. A total of 152 participants that had engaged in final conversations with individuals that were terminally ill completed the newly developed instrument. Factor analysis produced a five-factor structure, including: messages of spirituality/religion; expressions of love; proactive difficult relationship talk; everyday communication; and talk about illness/death. Participants' perceptions of the relational closeness and difficulty with the deceased significantly influenced the individuals' recalled frequency of FCs messages. Practical and scholarly implications focus on the needs of the family members regarding their communication with terminally ill individuals, as well as directions for future research with the FCs Scale.     

Novel biotechnologies for eradicating wasps: seeking Māori studies students’ perspectives with Q method

Aligned with the New Zealand government’s ‘Predator-Free 2050’ target for Aotearoa New Zealand, National Science Challenge: Our Biological Heritage supports research into five distinct ‘novel biotechnological controls’ of exotic wasps. A framing question within this project is which controls are considered ‘socially acceptable’ and thus suitable for further development to control and potentially eradicate introduced wasps? How can the public answer this question without first engaging with complex technologies? Can they develop and express an informed view that still reflects their ‘gut’ reactions and unique positions? To model and explore the views of an ‘informed public’, university students in Māori studies engaged in reflection, writing and mapping activities; choice and ranking exercises; Q Method; and focus group interviews. Amongst the interviewees, Q Method analysis distinguished three ‘factors’, describing unique viewpoints: those who see the potential of biotechnologies, those who are in doubt about them and those in a position of trust in scientists. Overall, the group see potential in new biotechnologies for wasps but are wary of political, economic and social decision-making mechanisms.     

Learning by wrong-doing: aspiration and transgression among German pupils after the Thirty Years' War

Early modern schools have long been known to have been unruly places. Yet historians have struggled to contextualize violence and other forms of transgressive behaviour committed by pupils, either interpreting such behaviour as part of a virtually timeless culture of children and youth or as a reflection of a decline in morals due to macro-historical events. This article adopts the sociological concept of aspirational reference groups to analyse pupils' transgressive behaviour such as drinking, brawling and carrying rapiers in the context of the violence frequently committed by early modern adults. It does so on the basis of disciplinary cases which have survived as part of the exceptionally well-preserved papers of a teacher-scholar at a Lutheran Latin (grammar) school in Saxony. Pupils' transgression reflected their humanist training and foreshadowed the culture of students. Transgressive behaviour at schools prepared pupils for the similarly violent and hierarchical culture of early modern universities. Though subject to disciplinary measures on the part of urban authorities, pupils' transgression was in fact essential in perpetuating a common code of behaviour for men of learning in the decentralized Holy Roman Empire and therefore served to stabilize rather than destabilize existing hierarchies in early modern society.     

Do Different Infant Smiles Reflect Different Positive Emotions?

Different types of infant smiles in the family of positive emotions were investigated during two mother-infant games: peekaboo and tickle. There were 27 6-month-old infants and 28 12-month-olds. Infant smiles were coded as simple (lip corner retraction only), Duchenne (simple plus cheek raising), play (simple plus jaw drop), and duplay (simple plus cheek raise and jaw drop). Results show that each type of smile has a systematic pattern of association with the game (peekaboo or tickle), component (setup or climax), trial (six trials for each game), and the direction of the infant's gaze. No significant age differences were found. We conclude that when smiling, infants may experience qualitatively different kinds of enjoyment during these two games: enjoyment of readiness to engage in play (simple smiles while gazing at mother during peekaboo), enjoyment of relief (simple smiles while gazing away from mother after being tickled), enjoyment of participation and agency (Duchenne smiles with gaze at mother during the climax of early tickle game trials), enjoyment of escape (Duchenne smiles while gazing away during tickle climax), and enjoyment of build-up (duplay smiles during the climax of later trials). These findings show that the same facial action, smiling, can reflect different positive emotions depending upon cooccurring facial actions and the dynamics of the social process, and that the positive emotional experience of infants as young as six months is more complex than previously reported.     

The Relationship between Social Defiance,Vindictiveness, Anger,and Brain Morphology in Eight‐year‐old Boys and Girls

The goal of this study is twofold: (1) to assess brain anatomical differences between children meeting diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and healthy controls, and (2) to investigate whether morphological brain characteristics associated with ODD differ in boys and girls. Eight‐year‐old participants (N = 38) were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging. ODD symptoms were assessed using the Dominic‐R interactive. In ODD participants, we observed a significant reduction of gray matter density in the left orbitofrontal cortex—a prefrontal region that plays a pivotal role in emotional self‐regulation and impulse control—and, conversely, an increase in the left temporal area—an area that has been associated with aggressive, impulsive, and antisocial personality. Furthermore, ODD boys showed a reduction of both gray matter density in the left orbitofrontal cortex and of white matter density in the left superior frontal area. The structural abnormalities found in the present study, in particular, the correlation between ODD symptoms and reduction of gray matter density in the left orbitofrontal cortex, may present some evidence for the existence of neuropathology associated with ODD symptoms during childhood. Furthermore, our findings indicate morphometric differences between boys and girls with ODD, which may be associated with gender differences in social behavior in children showing ODD symptoms.