The impact of inter-organizational information systems-enabled external integration on capabilities of buyer–supplier dyads

Increasingly, firms are adopting two major supply chain management initiatives: to undertake external integration with supply chain partners and to implement inter-organizational information systems (IOSs). However, academic researchers have not adequately investigated effects of these types of initiatives. Using empirical data from 154 buyer–supplier dyads, we examined the direct and indirect effects (through external integration) of IOS usage on capabilities of buyer– supplier dyads. We found that external integration plays a mediating role in the relationship between IOS usage and capabilities of buyer– supplier dyad. This is the first study to investigate the effects of IOS usage and external integration on capabilities of buyer–supplier dyad.     

Three-dimensional virtual reality: Applications to the 12 grand challenges of social work

Abstract

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) identified 12 Grand Challenges of Social Work to unify the profession with focused research, practice and policy applications for the most pressing social issues. Virtual Reality (VR), specifically three-dimensional immersive computer-generated environments, has a history of research and applications to address social and behavioral problems. VR is becoming more readily available, as the technology is becoming more common in mainstream platforms such as mobile technology. While social work interventions are often tailored for vulnerable populations that may not have access to VR computing, it appears that virtual reality is gaining accessibility with these advances. Within the framework of the 12 Grand Challenges of Social Work, researchers from three social work virtual reality laboratories in the United States, Texas State University, the University of Houston, and the University of Alabama, review applications previously tested and currently in development to focus future research and intervention in social work practice.     

Deux méthodes d'estimation pour les paramètres de processus moyenne mobile spatiaux

We consider moving average processes, {X_s, s ∈ ??}, where ?? is a triangular lattice in the plane R^2. To estimate the parameters of such processes, Adjengue & Moore (1993) have considered likelihood and gaussian pseudo-likelihood methods. We consider here two other methods. The first one is based on the estimation of the correlations and the relation between these correlations and the parameters of the process. The second relies on a linear approximation of the process. The asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators are analyzed and compared. A simulation study allows us to compare the estimators for fixed sample sizes.     

EFFORTS TO INCORPORATE SOCIAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVES INTO A FAMILY TRAINING PROGRAM

This paper describes the efforts of the faculty of the Family Institute of New Jersey in recent years to develop a collaborative family training program that takes into account issues of gender, race, culture, class, and sexual orientation. We have come to realize how strongly traditional approaches have been skewed in the direction of the dominant culture--white, male, heterosexist, and prioritizing the needs and experience of the middle and upper classes. We have attempted to modify our teaching, supervision, reading lists, and overall training approach to challenge trainees and ourselves to move toward broader, strength-based, and equity-based multicultural perspectives in our training. We describe our vision, how we incorporate it into our program structure, and a few of our training initiatives.     

A lightness of vision: the poetics of Relation in Malian art photography

“Art photography” is a recent phenomenon in Bamako, Mali, home of renowned studio portraitists Seydou Keïta (1921/3–2001) and Malick Sidibé (b.1936). These photographers inspired the founding of the Bamako Photography Biennale in 1994, which sparked the rise of a local art photography movement. The potentialities offered by the Biennale ignited the imaginations of a small cohort of Malian photographers. Yet, instead of following global trends introduced by the presence of international art, the Bamakois art photographers have remained close to the values of studio portraiture. Their practices emphasise photography’s social aspect by focusing on the human body and appreciating its beauty, while allowing individual creativity to flourish in ways previously unimaginable. Malian photographers thus have retained a relatively autonomous local identity, while creating art photography stemming from a history of portraiture that itself was repositioned as art on the global stage. This dialectic between local identity and global reception gives contemporary Malian photographs the potential to embody Relation, from Caribbean philosopher Édouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation (1990) and Philosophie de la Relation (2009). Relation acknowledges differences and diversity within wholeness or totality, and de-hierarchises power relations. Works by Alioune Bâ, Fatoumata Diabaté, Alimata dite Diop Traoré, Seydou Camara, Mohamed Camara, Emannual Daou and Youssouf Sogodogo exhibit a diversity of aesthetic approaches toward the theme of the body as a nexus of social networks, as a locus of memory, as marked by difference and as a site not only of desire, but of moral instruction. While Mali struggles with the violent after-effects of a military coup that ended two decades of peaceful democracy, these photographs commemorate that period of peace through their varied emphases on social interactions, the tolerance and celebration of difference, the importance given to personal and national memory and the traditional values of moral didacticism.     

Stigma and family relationships of middle-aged gay men in recovery

The primary objective of this study was to explore how middle-aged gay men in recovery cope with stigma and family relationships. For gay men, perceptions of acceptance of their sexual orientation and degree of social connectedness can play a role in their recovery from alcohol and substance use disorders. Yet gay men may have a more difficult time accessing certain family-level health resources because their families of origin may stigmatize, reject, or silence them on account of their sexual orientation. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore how participants in recovery constructed and coped with their experiences of stigma, family relationships, and alcohol and substance use. Participants (30 gay men ages 50 to 64) completed a questionnaire and interview. We used constructivist grounded theory method and minority stress theory as a theoretical framework to interpret the data. We identified the following themes: Internalization of Stigma, Changes in Coping Strategies, and Ongoing Stigma. Future research should explore how to incorporate familial support into gay men's recovery, address ongoing internalized stigma, and develop a social response to stigma, rather than leaving it to individuals to confront on their own.     

Changing things for the better: the use of children and young people’s reference groups in social research

The use of reference groups made up of members of the population being researched has been encouraged within the qualitative research literature. This paper describes the use of reference groups made up of children and young people and promotes them as a space within which co-reflexive activities can help researchers reconsider their research approaches and assumptions, their methodologies and methods and the new knowledge created. The paper uses three case studies to highlight the benefits the authors have encountered as well as those identified by children and young people themselves.     

Who loses in direct democracy?

We examine the success of California’s black, Latino, and Asian voters in ballot proposition elections, showing that minority voters lose more often than whites across all ballot propositions, and that this disadvantage is not limited to a small subset of racially-targeted propositions. Minority voters are 2-5 percentage points less likely than otherwise-similar white voters to be on the winning side of ballot propositions. These differences persist after excluding racially-targeted propositions because minority voters are more likely to lose on several issues including elections, the environment, health, housing, taxes, and transportation. We demonstrate that race is more important than class in describing which voters lose.