Community Amenity Measurement for the Great Fly-Over Zones

The purpose of this paper is to provide an alternative operationalization of amenities that does not privilege certain kinds of natural resources and climatic conditions and that can be used for assessing the quality of life in small towns. The amenity inventory presented here extends previous literature by including a broad range of amenities (natural resource, indoor and outdoor built recreational facilities, public and private services, and downtown amenities). The community level of analysis and small town focus are also unique. The inventory uses both secondary data from public sources and primary data that can be gathered by researchers or community residents. Therefore, in addition to the scholarly contribution of the inventory, the process of defining and assessing community amenities may be a valuable tool for building interpersonal relationships within communities, generating community spirit, and developing strategies for enhancing the local quality of life.     

The Dynamics of Research Alliances: Examining the Effect of Alliance Experience and Partner Characteristics on the Speed of Alliance Entry in the Biotech Industry

Few studies have moved beyond the dyadic level of an ongoing alliance and examined factors contributing to the success of entering a series of alliances. In this paper we expect biotechnology firms over time to learn from their alliance experience and to develop general alliance capabilities. Specifically, we expect the speed with which they enter into new research alliances, e.g. their alliance formation rate, to be affected by capabilities built up in prior alliances as well as by characteristics of their partners. We use longitudinal event history data for the complete population of US biotechnology firms for 1973–1999 to test four hypotheses about factors affecting the rate of new alliance formation. Our analysis suggests that the speed of entering research alliances is affected by prior experience of the focal firm, but not by partner characteristics. Our findings provide evidence that biotech firms learn how to learn more effectively from multiple research alliances; however, this effect is generalized and not tied to specific characteristics of the alliance partner.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： INCOME INEQUALITY IN CHINA High Incomes in Monopoly Industries： A Discussion

本文应用Oaxaca-Blinder分解方法,把垄断行业高收入分解为合理和不合理两个部分。实证分析发现,垄断行业与竞争行业之间收入差距的50％以上是不合理的。这主要是行业的垄断造成的。由于目前收入统计未能反映垄断行业的高福利,以上测量结果显然低估了垄断行业高收入中的不合理部分。     

Older Self-Neglecters: Interpersonal Problems and the Maintenance of Self-Continuity

Past research has examined links among animal abuse, child maltreatment, and intimate partner violence and demonstrated the importance of addressing the needs of both human and animal victims. We hypothesized that there might be a similar link between animal abuse and older adult welfare issues. As a first step in the earlier research was the development of a screening protocol that shed light on the link between domestic violence and animal abuse, we decided to follow a similar route to explore this new topic by asking state government representatives about their experiences, if any, with this topic. Here we report the results of a national survey of state Adult Protective Services agencies regarding their protocols for assessing animal welfare issues in the context of older adult maltreatment. We also describe a model assessment protocol we developed in collaboration with the Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services.     

Faculty in the Middle

This study was designed to explore how organizational life in university-affiliated graduate social work education programs in the United States is affected by the stress of heightened caregiving roles. Analysis of data from 69 schools demonstrated deleterious effects of caregiving stress on organizational effectiveness, including missed obligations, feeling overwhelmed, and distracting others by seeking social support for specific problems. The authors identify two variables that provided partial amelioration of caregiver stress and appeared to contribute to increased organizational effectiveness: larger faculty size and on-site child care.     

Interdisciplinary Community Collaboration: Perspectives of Community Practitioners on Successful Strategies

ABSTRACT

Six focus groups were convened to collect data on successful interdisciplinary community collaboration (ICC) strategies. Participants came from a variety of disciplines but shared the common identification of having worked in similar communities. Participant assignment to one of six groups was designed to insure diversity by gender and race or ethnicity. They discussed four questions received in advance. Prior consented tape-recorded sessions were transcribed and reviewed by group facilitators using a process of member checking. Data analysis utilized the qualitative methodology known as grounded theory. Results indicate that organizers must have (1) a knowledge base of strategic planning, management, and administration, (2) an intra- or interpersonal skills set, and (3) well-defined values and attributes. The Practice implications are that further research is needed to more fully explore the complexity of ICC work.     

Toward the Establishment of General Dimensions Underlying the Listening Process

Findings from previous research (Coakley, Halone, & Wolvin, 1996; Halone, Wolvin, & Coakley, 1997; Wolvin, Coakley, & Halone, 1995) indicate that the listening process may be conceptualized primarily in (a) cognitive, (b) affective, (c) behavioral/verbal, (d) behavioral/nonverbal, and (e) behavioral/interactive terms. This report seeks to quantitatively confirm these qualitatively-derived findings. Specifically, this study sought to analyze whether each respective dimension could be generally characteristic of the listening process. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, providing support for each respective dimension. Results from this study have implications for how communication scholars should conceive of the listening process in theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical terms.     

Bureaucratization and Goal Succession in Alternative Organizations

Abstract

A review of the literature of counterculture-inspired efforts at organizing alternatives to commercialism and technocracy reveals that the duration of many of these organizations was quite short. However, in spite of a general fading away of the larger counterculture, some of these efforts did indeed survive. Among the survivors are the crisis centers, organizations originally seeking to provide nondirective, empathetic, problem-solving help to individuals undergoing a personal crisis. An analysis of a sample of crisis centers based in midwestern states reveals that the internal structure of most of them has, with the passage of time, become increasingly formalized. Furthermore, many of these alternative organizations now serve persons who are less socially marginal and more socially acceptable than were the centers' original clients. Our results seem to suggest that, for both internal organizational reasons and external societal reasons, such groups may provide feelings of worth for their members but often change their initial goals somewhat. Also, despite their initial commitment to a less bureaucratic structure alternative organizations in fact become more bureaucratic.