Buying membership in the transnational community:migrant remittances,social status,and assimilation

I analyze the effects that social status and immigrant incorporation have on migrant remittances. Understanding remittances as one type of transnational practice, I conceptualize them as the fee that migrants pay to remain members of the transnational community. I define a “status hypothesis” in terms consistent with the view of transnational engagement as a response to status loss, predicting a negative association between increases in social status and remittances. Since immigrant incorporation usually entails status gain, this hypothesis is consistent with the conventional assimilation paradigm. While the status hypothesis could be linked to the new economics of labor migration as well, it collides with the view of transnationalism as an alternative path for successful immigrant incorporation. Using data on male Mexican migrants to the United States, I find enough support for the status hypothesis, indicating the need to clarify the ultimate meaning of transnational practices. In addition, my analysis shows that there is room to integrate economic theory, the assimilation paradigm, and the transnational perspective into a comprehensive understanding of transnational engagement.     

Contentment and Affect in the Estimation of Happiness

How do we assess how happy we are? One theory is that we compare life-as-it-is with standards of how-life-should-be. In this view, happiness emerges from a cognitive evaluation that draws on socially constructed standard of the good life. Another theory holds that we rather infer happiness on the basis of how well we feel most of the time. In that view, happiness is an unreasoned affective experience that roots in the gratification of universal human needs. One question that emerges from this discussion is whether these are really independent ways of evaluating life. If so, a next question is what their relative weight is in the evaluation. These questions are addressed at the nation level using data of the Gallup World Poll over the years 2006–2010. This survey in 127 nations involves not only a question on overall life satisfaction, but also a more cognitively focused question on how close one’s life is to the best possible and a series of questions on yesterday’s mood. Analysis of average scores in nations shows that mood and contentment are much intertwined, but also add to overall life satisfaction independently, the former more than the latter.     

Structural and contextual approaches to ambidexterity: A meta-analysis of organizational and environmental contingencies

This meta-analysis examines the conditions under which structural and contextual approaches help balance exploration and exploitation. Drawing on heterogeneous samples of prior ambidexterity studies, we apply moderated meta-analytic regression methods to 33,492 organizations sampled in 114 primary studies from 1991 to 2017 to test a contingency model. Our findings suggest that structural separation helps firms of all sizes to balance exploration and exploitation, and that structural separation is more conducive for balancing exploration and exploitation in high technology environments. Also, avoiding a structural separation approach benefits service firms. As research on ambidexterity enters the maturity stage we discuss the implications for future theory development, methodology, and for managers interested in developing ambidextrous organizations.     

Knowledge management in product innovation: an interpretative review

Knowledge management (KM) is relatively new, but still a very hot topic in management research and practice. Leading companies are reshaping their organizations in order to increase their ability in managing knowledge sharing and transfer within and across their organizational boundaries. KM is today considered by many scholars the next arena for global competition. Product innovation (PI), in particular, is one of the most promising areas, where KM is today applied and studied. Management literature has underlined how knowledge becomes the only source of sustainable competitive advantage in turbulent contexts, and the cognitive perspective represents the most adequate approach to analysing and understanding PI as a continuous learning process rather than as a sporadic event. Since the early 1990s, many contributions emerged from different fields, but after nearly one decade, KM is not yet a unitary stream of literature but reflects very diverse roots. In this paper, the different streams and approaches emerging in literature on KM in PI are reviewed and described, aiming at providing researchers with an interpretative tool and some directions for further research.     

Comparing degree programs from students’ assessments: A LCRA-based adjusted composite indicator

Taking into account the students’ evaluation of the quality of degree programs this paper presents a proposal for building up an adjusted performance indicator based on Latent Class Regression Analysis. The method enables us (i) to summarize in a single indicator statement multiple facets evaluated by students through a survey questionnaire and (ii) to control the variability in the evaluations that is mainly attributable to the characteristics (often referred as the Potential Confounding Factors) of the evaluators (students) rather than to real differences in the performances of the degree programs under evaluation. A simulation study is implemented in order to test the method and assess its potential when the composition of the degree programs as regards to students’ characteristics is sensibly different between one another. Results suggest that when the evaluations are strongly affected by the students’ covariates, the assessment based on the value of an unadjusted indicator can lead to bias and unreliable conclusions about the differences in performance. An application to real data is also provided.     

On the Use of Student Evaluation of Teaching: A Longitudinal Analysis Combining Measurement Issues and Implications of the Exercise

Social Indicators Research - Multi item questionnaires are widely used to collect students’ evaluation of teaching at university. This article makes an attempt to analyse students’...     

Determinants of Vaginal Cleansing,Application, and Insertion in Tete Province,Mozambique, and Products Used

Objective: In this article, we review insertion, application, and cleansing as they include the use of products other than water and have a number of harmful effects. Method: In 2007, a household survey of 919 women carried out in Tete Province, Mozambique, examined 8 vaginal practices. Results: Overall, 10% of the sexually active women reported regularly using these 3 vaginal practices concurrently. Of the women who practiced insertion, 65% used natural substances. A wider variety of products was used for applying substances on the external genitalia and for cleansing purposes. Conclusions: These findings have important implications for future HIV prevention, including in the use of microbicides.