Realizing the Need for Rework: From Task Interdependence to Social Networks

Design rework is a core phenomenon in new product development (NPD). Yet carrying out design rework presupposes recognizing the need for it. I characterize the types of interpersonal knowledge transfer that help developers realize the need for design rework in NPD. As predicted by the NPD literature, I find that individuals who interact frequently with colleagues to address their task interdependences are more likely to realize the need for rework. I also learn that interacting with colleagues who have different expertise in process‐related knowledge (as opposed to product‐related knowledge) facilitates realizing the need for rework. However, to develop a deeper understanding of how individuals recognize the need for rework when interacting with others, we must expand our views beyond task interdependence and expertise‐related factors. In particular, organizational variables—both formal and informal—play a significant role. With respect to formal hierarchical structures, actors of superior rank are less likely to realize the need for rework regardless of whether or not their interacting partner is of superior rank; however, actors of superior rank are more likely to trigger realizing the need for rework when interacting with partners of subordinate rank. By examining an organization's informal structure, I discover that the social “embeddedness” of developers (i.e., the energy and attention invested in a dyadic relationship) significantly influences their propensity to realize the need for rework. Several hypotheses are tested in a sociometric study conducted within the development department of a software company, and I discuss the implications for behavioral operations in NPD.     

Bitter strawberries: the construction of differences in a multicultural school: a case study

This paper presents the results of a case study looking at the views of teachers and other educational professionals pertaining to the academic progress and general integration of immigrant schoolchildren in multicultural schools in the province of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). It is organised into three sections: first, the geographical and social context of the study is described, focusing in particular on the impact on schools of migratory trends within the province associated with strawberry cultivation. This is followed by a presentation of the results of a field study into the educational panorama of immigrant pupils from various countries, drawing on verbal reports by teachers and school administrators. Finally, some conclusions are suggested for possible categories of analysis with a view to opening new lines of research in the future.     

Influence Assessment in an Heteroscedastic Errors-in-Variables Model

The main goal of this article is to consider influence assessment in models with error-prone observations and variances of the measurement errors changing across observations. The techniques enable to identify potential influential elements and also to quantify the effects of perturbations in these elements on some results of interest. The approach is illustrated with data from the WHO MONICA Project on cardiovascular disease.     

Problematizing the “informal sector”: 50 years of critique,clarification, qualification,and more critique

Since its coining in 1971, the concept of the “informal sector” has been used to draw scholarly, political, and philanthropic attention to hundreds of millions of workers who lack basic labor protections. But as the term proliferated, so too did its detractors. Critics claim that the label of “informal” homogenizes the world's poor and distorts understandings of the sources of and solutions to their economic woes. What are the origins of the concept's contradictory nature? What strategies have scholars used to increase the likelihood that it will be used to illuminate and uplift, rather than to distort and denigrate? This article analyzes how scholars have resignified and retheorized the informal economy in response to five conceptual challenges: stigmatization, definitional fuzziness, homogenization, an either/or fallacy, and the presumption of “formalization” as the solution. Such efforts have preserved the concept's analytic potency and political relevance. In the longer term, however, a true testament to the concept's value would be if it outlives its own utility; that is, if it mobilizes enough recognition and resources to the invisibilized majority of the world's workers that scholars and state bureaucrats no longer feel the need to lump them together under a misleading catchall label.     

Die Rezeption (Thyssen-)preisgekr?nter Artikel in der ?Scientific Community“

We investigate whether journal articles winning a prestigious award of the Thyssen foundation have a higher impact in the scientific literature than a control group of non-awarded articles. In average, awarded articles harvest significantly more citations than articles in the control group. Most remarkably, the average citation rank exactly matches the rank order of awards. The top award earns most citations while the second award, the third award and the non-awarded articles exhibit citation counts in declining order. The correlation of award rank and impact does not vanish if we restrict citation counts to the year of publication and the year thereafter. In this time span the distinction of excellence is very unlikely having a genuine effect on the impact measure. Thus, we do not find support for the social constructivist hypothesis that the correlation of the jury decision and the article impact is explainable by a label of distinctiveness. On the contrary, the empirical data confirm that the jury is successful in the selection of articles which in average have a larger impact in the scientific community than non-awarded publications.     

Economics for the right to work

This article argues that mainstream economic theory is one of the main reasons why the human right to work, which was recognized by the international community in 1966, appears not to have been taken seriously. In the mainstream discourse, labour is a cost, employment is a second‐tier objective, individuals are resources with production specifications, and rights are rigidities. Economics based on human rights and seeking to promote the right to work must construe that right as more than just fighting unemployment, regard full employment as an end in itself and place the individual at the heart of its raison d'être.     

Development and validation of a lean supply chain management measurement instrument

It is widely argued that to be competitive, a company not only needs to focus on internal aspects but on the entire supply chain. Lean supply chain management has become a means of enhancing competitiveness by improving efficiency and increasing flexibility at all stages of the supply chain. This research develops and validates a lean supply chain management measurement instrument. A two-phase approach is used for scale development and refinement. In the first phase, a literature review is conducted to identify definitions of lean supply chain management and agile supply chain management and their corresponding measurement items. In the second phase, the lean supply chain management measurement instrument is validated using survey data based on scales developed in the first phase by 59 scholars with experience in lean management and/or supply chain management. The results provide a structured and comprehensive measure of lean supply chain management indicating that there are two differentiated dimensions in the measurement instrument: one related to the operational aspects of lean supply chain strategy implementation and the second related to lean supply chain planning.     

Pour une science économique au service du droit au travail

Pour l'auteur, l'importance toute relative accordée au droit au travail, un principe pourtant consacré dès 1966 au niveau international, est le corollaire d'une doxa économique qui fait du travail un coût, de l'emploi un objectif de second rang, des individus des ressources, définies par leurs spécificités productives, et des droits des rigidités. Une économie fondée sur les droits de l'homme et protectrice du droit au travail doit défendre ce principe plus largement que par la seule lutte contre le chômage. Elle doit considérer le plein emploi comme une fin en soi et placer l'individu au centre.     

The structural Sharpe model under t-distributions

In this paper we consider Sharpe's single-index model or Sharpe's model, by assuming that the returns obtained follow a multivariate t elliptical distribution. Also, given that the returns of the market are not observable, the statistical analysis was made in the context of an errors-in-variables model. In order to analyze the sensibility to possible outliers and/or atypical returns of the maximum likelihood estimators the local influence method [10 Cook, R. D. 1986. Assessment of local influence. J. Roy. Statist. Soc. B, 48: 133–169.  [Google Scholar]] was implemented. The results are illustrated by using a set of shares of companies belonging to the Chilean Stock Market. The main conclusion is that the t model with small degrees of freedom is able to incorporate possible outliers and influential returns in the data.     

Robust inference in an heteroscedastic measurement error model

In this paper we deal with robust inference in heteroscedastic measurement error models. Rather than the normal distribution, we postulate a Student t distribution for the observed variables. Maximum likelihood estimates are computed numerically. Consistent estimation of the asymptotic covariance matrices of the maximum likelihood and generalized least squares estimators is also discussed. Three test statistics are proposed for testing hypotheses of interest with the asymptotic chi-square distribution which guarantees correct asymptotic significance levels. Results of simulations and an application to a real data set are also reported.