Generic Strategies and Business Performance: an Empirical Study of the Screw Machine Products Industry

Select businesses in industry may attempt to compete through distinct strategies. But some may be successful in adopting distinct strategic profiles while others may not prove successful. In this study it was expected that six different groups of businesses might be present in the empirical exploration – those competing successfully with the low cost strategy and those competing unsuccessfully with this strategy; those competing successfully with the differentiation strategy and those competing unsuccessfully with this strategy; and those competing successfully with low cost and differentiation strategies and those competing unsuccessfully with these strategies. The results of the investigation portray the presence of three strategic profiles. They are unsuccessful low cost businesses with the lowest performance, unsuccessful differentiated businesses with the second lowest performance, and successful businesses with combination strategies with the highest performance.     

Examining the Relationship Between Female Inmate Homosexual Behavior and Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and Homosexuals

Most sociologists and penologists tend to shy away from studying inmate attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals. Researchers within the corrections field who focus on prison sexuality typically conduct their research on consensual samesex sexual behavior and sexual coercion. The focus of the present study, however, was to ascertain female inmates' attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals while exploring the role ofseveral predictor variables on their attitudes. Specifically, the authors examine the relationship between female inmate homosexual behavior and attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals. Because of the number of items pertaining to attitudes toward homosexuality and homosexuals, factor analysis was conducted to examine whether the items measured similar constructs. Results ofthe factor analysis revealed two distinct factors/issues:civil/personal rights and personal deviance models. The mostsalient, and only statistically significant, variables in the civil/personal rights model were age, homosexual activity prior to incarceration, and homosexual activity during incarceration. Homosexual behavior during incarceration was the only statistically significant predictor of the personal deviance model.     

Consideration of Background Exposures in the Management of Hazardous Waste Sites: A New Approach to Risk Assessment

The current approach to health risk assessment of toxic waste sites in the U.S. may lead to considerable expenditure of resources without any meaningful reduction in population exposure. Risk assessment methods used generally ignore background exposures and consider only incremental risk estimates for maximally exposed individuals. Such risk estimates do not address true public health risks to which background exposures also contribute. The purpose of this paper is to recommend a new approach to risk assessment and risk management concerning toxic waste sites. Under this new approach, which we have called public health risk assessment, chemical substances would be classified into a level of concern based on the potential health risks associated with typical national and regional background exposures. Site assessment would then be based on the level of concern for the particular pollutants involved and the potential contribution of site contaminants to typical background human exposures. While various problems can be foreseen with this approach, the key advantage is that resources would be allocated to reduce the most important sources of human exposure, and site remediation decisions could be simplified by focussing on exposure assessment rather than questionable risk extrapolations.     

行政管理革新与法治政府建设——应以法治和发展的眼光审视当下的行政管理新举措

当下深化改革的进程中我国行政管理新举措层出不穷且争议甚多,可从几个方面加以观察和评价:一是诸多典型案(事)例暴露出严重的观念滞后问题,必须克服戴旧眼镜看新事物的现象;二是内容丰富的行政管理改革创新是在宏大复杂的背景下进行的,最主要的背景因素是经济和政治改革的深化和科技革命的影响;三是我国行政管理改革创新的动向,是以人为本前提下走向柔性管理、高效管理和方法创新,重点是行政管理方式方法的创新发展,相对而言这是成本低、风险小、效率高、成效稳健、易达共识的路径选择;四是行政管理改革创新应坚持法治原则和实践标准等基本界限,防止借创新之名行营私之实。当下关键在于我们要以法治和发展的眼光去看待、宽容和冷静的心态去对待这些行政管理改革的创新举措。     

Cohort size and earnings in Great Britain

Numerous studies in the United States have confirmed that individuals born into large cohorts, ceteris paribus, tend to have lower earnings on entry into the labour force compared to individuals born into small cohorts. On the other hand, only limited attention has been directed towards exploring the relationship between cohort size and earnings in other nations. This paper examines empirically the relationship between cohort size and male earnings in Great Britain. The data used is a time-series of cross-sections (1973–1982) constructed from theGeneral Household Survey. Some support for the hypothesis that large cohorts have depressed earnings is found. However, this effect does not persist as the cohort ages.