Managerial value and belief systems in a cross-national context: The case of thetrivial significance

This article discusses potential theoretical and methodological flaws in value-based research in a cross-national context. Using data from a comparative study of American and Indian CEOs, it is shown that some managerial beliefs and value systems do vary as a function of national background. While this is neither surprising nor exciting, whether this significantheterogeneity offers nontrivial predictive utilityin explaining the observed variance in a large number of structural, strategic, and other critical variables at the organizational level is the more important question. This study offers preliminary evidence to the contrary.In this era of multinational corporations and an emerging global market for executive and managerial talent, the question of whether some managerial beliefs and value systems persist in spite of extensive acculturation and socialization has been an issue of concern — especially in the United States because of a large and continuing flow of immigrants. Our results show in essence that this question, though important and interesting from a sociological angle, is perhaps not as crucial as one might suppose in influencing the strategic thrust, structural configurations, or certain aspects of performance of an organization.     

Convenience and independence: do physicians strike a balance in admitting decisions?

This paper contrasts economic and professional models of physician admitting behavior. Economic models emphasize physician convenience and income maximization, while professional models emphasize physician autonomy and independence. The paper examines the relative power of these models to explain two types of admitting decisions made by physicians: which hospitals to begin admitting patients to, and how many patients to admit to a hospital. Analyses of physician admitting patterns over a three-year period suggest that economic considerations outweigh professional considerations in both decisions. Results are interpreted in light of recent changes in the profession of medicine and physician-hospital relationships.     

A comparative study on detection of influential observations in linear regression

A large number of statistics are used in the literature to detect outliers and influential observations in the linear regression model. In this paper comparison studies have been made for determining a statistic which performs better than the other. This includes: (i) a detailed simulation study, and (ii) analyses of several data sets studied by different authors. Different choices of the design matrix of regression model are considered. Design A studies the performance of the various statistics for detecting the scale shift type outliers, and designs B and C provide information on the performance of the statistics for identifying the influential observations. We have used cutoff points using the exact distributions and Bonferroni's inequality for each statistic. The results show that the studentized residual which is used for detection of mean shift outliers is appropriate for detection of scale shift outliers also, and the Welsch's statistic and the Cook's distance are appropriate for detection of influential observations.     

Improvement of Highway Safety I: Identification of Causal Factors Through Fault-Tree Modeling1

As the first article of a two-part series, the purpose of this paper is to examine the functional factors that contribute to automobile accident occurrence and to model the causation structure in the form of a fault-tree. The fault-tree model provides an intuitive framework for qualitatively decomposing possible pathways to accident occurrence. Fault-tree analysis also provides a statistical representation of how interacting driver, vehicle, and environmental factors contribute to the likelihood of automobile accident occurrence. The application of this model facilitates pinpointing those factors that most contribute to accident causation and subsequently enables the identification and comparison of potential crash avoidance technologies.     

THE EFFICACY OF STATE MANDATED MINIMUM QUALITY CERTIFICATION: THE CASE OF USED VEHICLES

This paper investigates whether the quality certification required by certain state used vehicle disclosure laws has been effective. Metzger concluded from a theoretical investigation of non-market responses to the lemons problem, that such laws may or may not be effective. We have been unable to find evidence that the currently mandated disclosure requirements in Wisconsin (known defects provision) and Iowa (safety certification) are effective in increasing the number of good quality vehicles traded in those used markets. These disclosure requirements do not seem to decrease a prospective buyer's risk of purchasing a lemon.     

ON THE NONCENTRAL DISTRIBUTION OF A RANDOM MATRIX USEFUL IN CLASSIFICATION THEORY

To prove the optimality properties of the maximum likelihood (and also minimum distance) discriminant rule Rogers (1980, p. 98) embeds the maximum likelihood discriminant function in a Cauchy-Schwartz inequality. This embedding procedure of Rogers (1980) may be used to derive a new distribution for Anderson's (1958) classification statistic.