Intensity, timeliness, and success of incumbent response to technological discontinuities: a synthesis and empirical investigation

The extant literature highlights numerous different factors influencing the timeliness and intensity of incumbent response to discontinuous technological change. However, this literature has so far not been synthesized and is therefore limited in its analytical, predictive, and normative power. We develop a comprehensive model of incumbent response that organizes different explanatory factors into the three distinct dimensions of (1) identification and interpretation, (2) decision making, and (3) organizational implementation. We also conceptualize how response intensity and timeliness affect business performance in new technological domains. We test the model against data from 320 firms from the German dental lab industry, finding substantial support for the majority of our hypotheses. This study offers unique empirical insight in observing that cognitive constructs such as framing and management flexibility have the strongest impact on both intensity and timeliness of incumbent response to technological, and thus, strategic discontinuities. Together, our findings have important implications for both theory and practice.     

It's Boring: Notes on the Meanings of Boredom in Everyday Life

Qualitative Sociology -     

The Narrowing Regional Gap in Church Attendance in the United States1

Abstract Students of the South have postulated that southern distinctiveness is eroding. Using General Social Survey data for 1972–1991, the convergence hypothesis is tested for regular church attendance. Regional convergence is found, but only for the rural South. Also, narrowing of regional differences in church attendance is especially pronounced among the young, indicating that the convergence is likely to continue. Despite these results, present church attendance levels remain significantly higher in the South than in the non South.     

Multi-category purchase incidences with marketing cross effects

We focus on cross effects of marketing variables and cross category dependences for multi-category decisions which households take during a shopping trip to a retail store. A cross effect is defined as the effect which a marketing variable used for a certain product category exerts on purchases of another category. Using Dirichlet process mixture models with multivariate probit components we analyze purchase incidences of 24,047 shopping visits of a random sample of 1500 households. Independent variables of these models encompass marketing variables for 25 product categories and household attributes. We discuss differences between the two best performing models, a full model which includes both cross effects and cross category dependences, and a related restricted model which ignores cross effects. We obtain several high and significant differences with respect to category constants and cross category dependences between these two models. We also present explanations for the larger (in absolute terms) cross effects of features or displays. We demonstrate that by ignoring cross effects management runs the risk to obtain in many product categories too optimistic forecasts of sales revenue changes due to promotions. In contrast to previous related work suggesting not to use promotions which are not tailored to individual households in any of the investigated categories, we obtain support for such promotions in at least 48 % of the 25 product categories. In addition, based on the full model we demonstrate that often different categories are appropriate for promotions which are targeted at household clusters.     

Qualifikationsanforderungen und Schulungsansätze für Ausbildungssupervisoren im Bereich der Psychotherapie – ein Überblick

Supervision is a central domain of professional education and clinical practice. Supervisiors features for qualification as well as formal training and standards have been largely neglected. In this article, the proposals of different psychotherapeutic societies concerning the features for qualification were discussed. Additionally some training concepts were presented. Suggestions for future development in this area are addressed, including the need to refine further and operationalized competences, develop expectations for accreditation and lizensure regarding supervision competencies.