Grazing,exploring and networking for sustainability-oriented innovations in learning-action networks: an SME perspective

With sustainability-oriented innovations (SOIs) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can conquer niche markets, cut resource usage and improve the quality of life. SMEs follow different strategic orientations for SOIs. They are conditioned by their organizational structures, capabilities and interaction with the business, regulatory and knowledge network. Usually, SMEs find it easier to span their boundaries to the business network. This research explores, in a longitudinal multi-case study, how the interaction with the knowledge network can condition an SME's strategic orientation. In the analysis of a learning-action network established by a research institute, three network-patterns (grazer, explorer and networker) are observed which result from different SME boundary-spanning processes. A central role is played by the boundary spanners who influence to which degree the SME can build up exploratory and exploitative learning capabilities to further deploy, push forward or generically develop its strategic orientation for SOIs in interaction with the knowledge network.     

Predicting program success for adult offenders with serious mental illness in a court ordered diversion program

ABSTRACT

Individuals with mental illnesses are disproportionately involved with the criminal justice system and are now being diverted from jails to community-based supervision. This study examines secondary data from a state hospital, mental health diversion program. Logistic regression was used to examine risk factors that best predicted successful program completion. Results indicate that non-whites are more likely to complete. Participants in supervised housing, ever been re-hospitalized, diagnosed with a depressive or psychotic disorder or who had their probation revoked were less likely to complete. Findings indicate practitioners should provide a holistic and individually oriented treatment approach for success.     

Agenda Setting,Public Opinion,and the Issue of Immigration Reform*

Objective. Agenda‐setting theory is used to motivate hypotheses about how media coverage of immigration influences public perceptions of its importance. The authors seek to offer a more complete explanation of public opinion on immigration by exploring differences in the effects of immigration news in border and nonborder states. Method. This article employs content analyses of newspaper coverage of immigration and Gallup public opinion data over a 12‐month period (January–December 2006). Respondents' identification of immigration as a “Most Important Problem” is modeled as a conditional relationship between border state/nonborder state residence and media coverage, ethnic context, and individual‐level demographics. Results. Media attention to immigration is greater in border states than in nonborder states; as a result, residents of border states are more likely to identify immigration as a most important problem than are residents of nonborder states. Conclusions. The analyses point to the importance of geography and news coverage in explanations of public opinion on immigration.     

English‐ and Spanish‐Language Media Coverage of Immigration: A Comparative Analysis*

Objective. We apply economic theories of news to explain differences between English‐ and Spanish‐language newspaper coverage of immigration. Methods. Using content analysis and contextual data, we examine newspaper coverage of immigration as a function of economic incentives of news organizations and the language of the newspaper outlet. Results. The results indicate that Spanish‐language news outlets generate a larger volume of coverage and more positive coverage of immigration when compared to English‐language news outlets. Conclusions. This specific topic is important and politically relevant because of the potential implications variability in media coverage of this issue hold for public opinion on immigration.     

The Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS): further results on demographic correlates, dimensionality, reliability, and validity

Convergent lines of evidence from adoption, family, geographical, immigrant, molecular genetic, surname, and twin studies of suicide point to genetic contributions to risk factors for suicidal behavior. Related mental health literacy (knowledge and beliefs) of professionals and laypersons may, however, lag behind this research progress. The purpose of this study was to further validate the 22-item Beliefs in the Inheritance of Risk Factors for Suicide Scale (BIRFSS), a novel instrument for assessing individuals' beliefs in the genetics of suicide. Data from a general population sample of 159 Austrian adults showed adequate internal scale consistency. Due to deliberate content heterogeneity, the instrument has a subscale structure, but factor analysis of items extracted a dominant first factor. BIRFSS scores were positively related to overall and specific knowledge on suicide facts (convergent validity), whereas unrelated to the Big Five personality dimensions, locus of control, social desirability, and verbal intelligence (discriminant validity). Demographic correlates of BIRFSS scores included respondents' age and religiosity (both positive ones), but not respondents' sex, educational level, or political orientation.     

Connecting People – Renewing Power Relations? A Research Review on the Use of Mobile Phones

The paper discusses how the power perspective has been considered and discussed in qualitative social studies on the use of mobile phones in practices at home, work and public places. Some themes relevant from the aspect of power negotiations were extrapolated from the reviewed literature: constant availability at home and work, and the mobile phone as a public status symbol in respect to its design and use in space, time, and social surroundings. The review also aims to show how social variables affecting the adoption and use of the mobile phone have so far been analyzed in research. The writers conclude that mobile phones have been interpreted to reproduce and renew traditional power hierarchies. Still, more nuanced research is needed to understand the micro‐mechanisms of power in the socio‐cultural contexts of the use of mobile phones.     

Omnibus or not: package bills and single-issue bills in a legislative bargaining game

Legislators sometimes pass unrelated issues in one bill with one vote (omnibus bills), but they often vote separately on different issues as well. In this article, a model is considered in which the first mover chooses whether to bargain over an omnibus bill or several separate bills. The main difference between the two types of bills is that trade-offs between issues are possible with omnibus bills, but not with separate bills. The underlying bargaining game is demand-bargaining (Morelli 1999). In this game, moderate legislators prefer to propose single-issue bills; extreme legislators prefer omnibus bills, if the asymmetry in policy ideal points in the legislature is large enough.     

Variations in the gender composition of immigrant populations: how they matter

This paper estimates and interprets empirical shifts in the gender composition of immigrants to add to scholarship about the gendering of international migrations over time. We map shifts in gender ratios using micro-level data that permit us to create age-standardized estimates among adult foreign born stock living in the United States since 1850 and in 26 other nations worldwide since 1960. We examine regional and national variations in these shifts, and ask whether and how the gendered composition of foreigners from diverse origins in the United States – the nation that has received the largest populations of migrants for over a century – differs from other nations that receive large numbers of immigrants. We also examine recent variations in gender ratios among immigrants living in six regional destination countries. Results show substantial variation in the gender composition of foreign-born populations, and they offer a starting point for examining causes and consequences in future research.     

Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Describe Their Experiences: A Typology-Based Qualitative Analysis

Although much is known about the impact of intimate partner violence on children, few empirical studies have linked children’s experiences to typologies. This qualitative study, based on interviews with children 8–12 years of age living at women’s shelters in Sweden, explores how children describe the nature of the violence they have been exposed to with the aim of identifying patterns in the children’s experiences. The typologies developed by Johnson and colleagues and by Holtzworth-Munroe and colleagues are used as an analytical framework for analysis. Three main types of children’s experiences of intimate partner violence were identified: “Obedience-Demanding Violence,” “Chronic and Mean Violence,” and “Parenthood-Embedded Violence.” These the types can improve our understanding of the complex variety of children’s experiences of parental IPV by acknowledging how from children’s perspectives, experiences of IPV are closely connected to the perpetrator being their parent. The study provides examples of three different strategies that have implications for the factors that social workers may want to address when making judgments about custody, place of residence, and contact.