Authors’ response: on the role of data,statistics and decisions in a pandemic

AStA Advances in Statistical Analysis -     

Why Study Risk Perception?

Studies of risk perception examine the opinions people express when they are asked, in various ways, to characterize and evaluate hazardous activities and technologies. This research aims to aid risk analysis and societal decision making by (i) improving methods for eliciting opinions about risk, (ii) providing a basis for understanding and anticipating public responses to hazards, and (iii) improving the communication of risk information among laypeople, technical experts, and policy makers.     

Critical success factors for cross-functional teamwork in new product development

There is consensus that the effective implementation of cross-functional teams is critical to new product success. However, such teams face particular challenges because of well-documented barriers between functions. Furthermore, there is little evidence-based guidance for practitioners on how to achieve effective cross-functional teamwork. In order to address this gap, the literature on cross-functional teamwork was analysed to identify critical success factors. Using a heuristic team effectiveness model, these were categorized into six groups: task design, group composition, organizational context, internal processes, external processes and group psychosocial traits. Recent theory on group effectiveness has increasingly recognized the significance of a supportive organizational context, and this is particularly pertinent for cross-functional teams. Key success factors include strategic alignment between functions, a climate supportive of teamwork and team-based accountability. The findings are integrated into a diagnostic model which is intended to be of practical benefit to people designing, leading and facilitating cross-functional new product development teams.     

External knowledge search,absorptive capacity and radical innovation in high-technology firms

Open innovation and absorptive capacity are two concepts based on the idea that companies can leverage the knowledge generated externally to improve their innovation performance. The aim of this paper is to analyse the joint effect of open innovation and absorptive capacity on a firm's radical innovation. Open innovation is expressed in terms of external search breadth and depth strategies and absorptive capacity is described by distinguishing between potential and realized absorptive capacity. In order to test our hypotheses, we carried out empirical research in firms operating in high-technology industries. The results indicate that internal routines and processes for absorbing external knowledge help explain radical innovation as they show a significant effect of potential and realized absorptive capacity. Also, there is a moderating effect of absorptive capacity on open innovation. Specifically, potential absorptive capacity exerts a positive effect on the relationship between external search breadth and depth and radical innovation. Realized absorptive capacity moderates the influence of external search breadth. These findings confirm the complementary nature of absorptive capacity and open innovation search strategies on radical innovation.     

The Gestalt of Organizational Downsizing: Downsizing Strategies as Packages of Change

This paper develops and examines a framework ofdownsizing processes at the organizational level. Itbuilds on previous frameworks and literature byintroducing new variables found to be important in a field study and by bringing empirical evidenceto bear on conceptual underpinnings related toorganizational downsizing and change. The frameworkdeveloped identifies two general approaches thatorganizations use when undergoing downsizing and redesign, aswell as patterns of activities and changes thataccompany them. Downsizing driving redesign involvesincremental and low-level change, and is associated with less communication and systematic analysis,narrow participation in change efforts, and lowermagnitude change in other organizational attributes.Redesign driving downsizing involves more fundamentalorganizational change, and is associated with high-levelchanges that involve restructuring, more communication,broad participation in change efforts, advancesystematic analysis, and the use of interorganizationalrelationships to further downsizing efforts.     

Severely Traumatized Siblings: A Treatment Strategy

Siblings who have suffered severe trauma and disrupted attachment relate to one another in ways that interfere with individual development, the chance to benefit from connections with adults, the establishment of healthy sibling relationships, and the working through of traumatic experiences. The authors use case examples to illustrate four distinct sibling patterns: absent, adult lockout, half and half, and trauma shield. The authors highlight the importance of recognizing these types and then varying the therapist's treatment stance to pursue five goals. These include suspending problematic sibling relationships to create room for bonding with caring adults, transferring attachment behaviors and impulses to a receptive adult, resuming healthy individual development, forming more adaptive sibling connections, and expressing shared traumatic content.     

Patient assertiveness in ethnically diverse older women with breast cancer: Challenging stereotypes of the elderly

Patients' views of patient-physician interactions—particularly the perspectives of older, ethnically diverse women—are poorly understood. The older patient's attitude toward and understanding of the medical encounter, however, are essential to the design of strategies to improve patient-physician communication. To date, investigations have primarily emphasised the ways in which the therapeutic relationship is influenced by immutable patient characteristics. This qualitative study extends previous research findings by looking beyond the effect of ascribed categories (such as age, race, and gender) and focusing on aspects of patient behavior, specifically assertiveness. Focus groups were conducted with older African-, Chinese-, European-, and Hispanic American breast cancer patients from sites in the eastern and western United States. The study explores the potential of a form of patient activation for challenging stereotypes of the elderly and changing health care practitioners' behavior.     

The dynamics of time use: Context and meaning

In this article, earlier work on the organization of the household day is revisited to bring a sociological perspective to the study of household time. There is much to be gained from elaborating the conceptualization and measurement of time use to acknowledge and the employment of its dynamic qualities and meanings. That is, analysis of household time use must become far more than a longitudinal accounting process. In this article, no roadmap to such a destination can be provided but perhaps movement in a new direction. The practical application of insights from research on household time use requires conceptual frameworks that allow household time to be depicted as it unfolds and as participants experience it. That is, serious attention might be lent not only to studying where time is spent but also to how activities are situated and experienced in time to realize human affairs.She is the author ofThe Gender Factory: The Apportionment of Work in American Households, and in 1995 she coeditedindividual Voices, Collective Visions: 50 Years of Women in Sociology, published by Temple University Press. Her current work focuses on the theoretical articulation of race, class and gender in women's work.This paper required a good deal of reflection on a project I undertook with Richard A. Berk in 1975. I am grateful for his comments and suggestions.     

‘Wallbanking’, innovativeness and computer attitudes: 25–40-year-old ATM-users on the spot

Attitudes towards ‘wallbanking’ (making use of banking services through an Automated Teller Machine (ATM)) and self-reported frequency of wallbanking have been related to attitudes towards innovations and towards computers. The investigation also included the perception of advantages as well as disadvantages of wallbanking, factors that determine one's choice of a bank, man-machine problems related to the use of an ATM, and demographic factors. Using a sample of 201 respondents in the age range of 25 to 40 years, structural equation modeling revealed that wallbanking attitudes have a major influence on the frequency of using ATMs. The innovativeness attitude ‘New is wasteful’ also showed a clear negative link with the frequency of wallbanking. On the other hand, the relationship between computer attitudes and the frequency of using ATMs had to be rejected. Income and education proved to have an indirect link with the frequency of wallbanking, which refines other research findings. These results may reflect specific financial management characteristics of the age group under investigation.