Applying stage-gate processes to technology development—Experience from six hardware-oriented companies

The stage gate model has been proposed for application to uncertain technology development. Reports on industrial experience from such implementations are quite limited, however. This led us to explore in six companies what adaptations have been made to facilitate the model's usefulness for technology development and the companies’ experiences from their practical application of the model. Our results indicate that aspects proven important for the operational success, or failure, of the model include the level of adaptation to the characteristics of technology development and a more flexible use than that normally found in product development.     

Excluding Institutionalized Elderly from Surveys: Consequences for Income and Poverty Statistics

Growing life expectancy and changes in financial, marriage and labour markets have placed the income position of the elderly at the center of scientific and political discourse. As a consequence, the last decades witnessed the publication of various influential reports that contained comparative statistics on old age income inequalities on the basis of international surveys. Common to these surveys is that they exclude the elderly who live in institutions. The divergence between the target population (e.g. the population aged 65 and over) and the survey population (e.g. the noninstitutionalized population aged 65 and over) that thus arises, might lead to important bias in the survey results. However, hardly any research has been conducted quantifying the direction and strength of this bias. This article tries to fill this gap and assesses the consequences of excluding the institutionalized elderly for the validity and international comparability of a number of indicators. Analyses with the Belgian Datawarehouse Labour Market and Social Protection show that the resulting bias is negligible for average equivalent pension income, but that assistance dependency among pensioners is underestimated by 10%. Furthermore, on the basis of international statistics, it is shown that the share of elderly in institutions varies substantially across countries. It is argued how this jeopardizes the international comparability of old age statistics. Finally, the article opens up a discussion on the meaning of lack of income and wealth among institutionalized elderly. It concludes that depending on how this question is answered, poverty will be under- or overestimated in countries with a high share of institutionalized elderly.     

Marital Aspirations,Sexual Behaviors,and HIV/AIDS in Rural Malawi

We explore how marital aspirations are related to the sexual behaviors of adolescents and young adults in Malawi, where HIV/AIDS prevalence among adults exceeds 10%. We also consider whether the specter of AIDS is shaping ideals about marriage. By combining survey data (N = 1,087) and in‐depth interviews (N = 133) with young Malawians from the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project, we show that looking for and finding a suitable spouse are linked to sexual behaviors and, thus, HIV risks. Moreover, concerns about contracting HIV are closely tied to the ideal characteristics of a future spouse. Our findings draw long‐overdue attention to the importance of marital aspirations in understanding adolescent sexual behaviors and risks in the era of AIDS.     

Small firms and the information problem

Information is essential for decision-making and strategy by small and medium-sized enterprises. Hans Pleitner explores the content of information used by SMEs based on internal and external information and finds much deficiency. SMEs also have problems with the technicalities of handling information, although there has been a big take-up of personal computers. A lot depends on businessmen's attitudes, and these vary greatly. Dr Pleitner recommends that external institutions should try harder to encourage businessmen in the greater use of information and its technology.     

Scenarios in Europe—Who uses them and why?

The authors of this article describe a study of European companies the aim of which was to review the extent of multiple scenario analysis in company planning. They describe the differences in planning between users and non-users of the system, and analyse the benefits and drawbacks of using the system.     

Who Holds the Stakes? A Case Study of Stakeholder Identification at Two Nuclear Weapons Production Sites

Traditional risk assessments, including those involving the United States Department of Energy (USDOE), are often criticized for producing useless or noncredible management responses because they did not meaningfully involve the public. The first step to involve the public is to identify appropriate active participants (stakeholders). This study was done to understand the processes used to identify stakeholders to serve on advisory boards established at the two largest remediation sites in the United States: the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Hanford stakeholder identification process produced an interest-based board whereas the Savannah River Site strategy produced population-based representation. The basic goals of the stakeholder advisory groups were similar. However, different processes were used to identify the participants for the groups in part because of distinctly different social and cultural conditions in the areas affected by the operations of the two facilities, and in part because of the different level of trust of the USDOE and their contractors at Hanford compared with Savannah River. The discussion analyzes their different needs and potential for successful citizen participation.     

Freedom of choice and diversity of options: Some difficulties

This paper explores the possibility for a (non-preference-based) freedom ranking of opportunity sets that is sensitive to the diversity of the options. It turns out that how distances between sets and alternatives are measured is crucial to the derivation of such a ranking. Several proposals are examined, each of which is shown to lead to impossibility results. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at conferences in Kortrijk, Osnabrück, Oisterwijk, Caen and Pavia. I thank the participants at these conferences for their comments. I would also like to thank Steven Hartkamp, Theo Kuipers, Clemens Puppe and especially Kotaro Suzumura for their helpful comments. Furthermore, I am very grateful to Somdeb Lahiri for pointing out a mistake in a previous version of this paper.     

Seeds of peace: toward a common narrative

In the woods of Maine, young people from conflict regions meet to learn about themselves, each other, and their potential to promote peace.