Determinants of motion picture box office and profitability: an interrelationship approach

Introduction  Producing and marketing motion pictures is notoriously risky, with only three out of ten movies breaking even and one becoming profitable at the box office. Extending knowledge on the factors that influence a movie’s box-office and on the interrelations between these factors can be seen as major contribution to aid in lowering the number of failures in the motion picture industry. The major aim of this study is to distinguish direct and indirect effects between potential success drivers and motion picture success by understanding the interrelationships among different determinants of movie success. Methods  Hypotheses are developed with regard to the relationships among a number of factors that have been shown to impact motion-picture box office as well as movie profitability. Applying path analysis, which allows a simultaneous testing of factor interrelations, the hypotheses are subsequently tested against a sample of 331 movies. Results and conclusion  The factors considered in the analysis explain a remarkable amount of a movie’s success. The findings improve the movie industry’s understanding of motion picture success because for the first time interrelationships between the various factors are considered, which enables the separation of direct and indirect (i.e., mediated) effects. By understanding different kinds of effects on movie success, studios are enabled to allocate budgets more effectively. In addition, the findings offer explanations for previous contrary findings of several factors’ influences on success.      

Reflections on risk in child protection: is it time for a shift in paradigms?

Approaches to risk assessment and management in child protection have been developed largely within an objectivist paradigm and this has led to an emphasis on prediction, control and culpability. This paper argues that the objectivist paradigm has failed to provide valid and reliable measures of risk and has replaced a focus on the subject (the individual) with a one-sided focus on objectified risk factors. Because of these limitations, it is argued that risk should be explored from an alternative, subjectivist paradigm. The paper outlines the implications of this shift for social work practice with children and their families, by advocating the re-instatement of the subject and a return to 'relationship' as the guiding rationale for social work intervention.     

A method from the ‘lifeworld’: some possibilities for person centred planning for children in care

This paper describes a method for working with children who are the subjects of care planning and review under the Children Act 1989. The person centred planning method, as it is termed, has been well established in working with adults with special needs but can be extrapolated to encounters with children. It focuses on three fundamental areas: relationship, meaning and narrative. In underscoring these areas, the method restrains the bureaucracy and experience of stigma that is often present for those residing in state care. On a wider plane, the paper argues that the method stands as a veritable example of Habermas's ideas concerning the application of communicative rationality and discursive democracy in social life.     

Developing critical social work in theory and in practice: child protection and communicative reason

This paper argues that a critical analysis of the ideologies that inform contemporary child care has been missing from the 're-focusing debate'. Such an analysis points up the necessity of reasserting a critical social work position in order to provide a basis for reconstructing practice and engaging with other social actors and their ideologies in an open and creative fashion compatible with Habermas' aspiration of 'communicative reason'.     

Re-thinking a systemic approach to child welfare: A critical response to the framework for the assessment of children in need and their families

The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need was introduced by the Department of Health (England and Wales) in 2000. Offering guidance to social workers in child and family settings, it came as a watershed in three main ways. First, it emphasized the connection between child poverty and developmental delay. Second, it advocated a systemic approach to child welfare by drawing on a number of related theories, including Bronfenbrenner's (1979) model of human development. Third, it overturned a restricted preoccupation with child abuse that had dominated much of child and family social work in the past. These developments aside, the systemic basis of the framework is problematic because it fails to explain how power operates within society. Without this understanding, social workers will not be in a position to tackle the inequalities which the framework rightly targets. This paper seeks to remedy these deficits by drawing on the critical systems theory of Jürgen Habermas.     

Building resilience in a children's home: results from an action research project

This paper reports on the findings of an action research project aimed at building resilience in young people in a residential children's home. Daniel and Wassell's six domains for promoting resilience in young people were adopted as a conceptual framework to guide the residential social workers as they engaged in successive cycles of reflection and action. Two core areas were explored: (a) the approaches deemed to be helpful in building resilience; and (b) the background factors that enabled and constrained the social workers' interventions. The findings showed that the participants acted creatively to use resources and tools both within the system of State‐mandated parenting and the informal, meaning‐oriented world of the young people.     

Job Segregation and Gender Differences in Work-Family Spillover Among White-Collar Workers

We test two propositions in this paper: (1) work-family conflict varies with gender composition and hours on the job; and (2) women will experience more tension between work and family responsibilities than will men. Using a sample of white-collar workers, we measured work-family conflict with a composite scale tapping negative job-to-home spillover. Workgroup composition had no effect on men's reported work-family conflict, while work hours was positively associated with work-family conflict. For women, longer work hours and tokenism in the immediate workgroup increased perceptions of work-family conflict, but unexpectedly, the interaction of work hours and tokenism was negatively related to work-family conflict. We explored several possible arguments for this contrary finding.