Seeding Science,Courting Conclusions: Reexamining the Intersection of Science,Corporate Cash,and the Law

Social scientists have expressed strong views on corporate influences over science, but most attention has been devoted to broad, Black/White arguments, rather than to actual mechanisms of influence. This paper summarizes an experience where involvement in a lawsuit led to the discovery of an unexpected mechanism: A large corporation facing a multibillion-dollar court judgment quietly provided generous funding to well-known scientists (including at least one Nobel prize winner) who would submit articles to open, peer-reviewed journals, so that their unbiased science could be cited in an appeal to the Supreme Court. On balance, the corporations most effective techniques of influence may have been provided not by overt pressure, but by encouraging scientists to continue thinking of themselves as independent and impartial.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta, GA, August 2003.     

Exploring Strategy Implementation Consistency Over Time: The Moderating Effects of Industry Velocity and Firm Performance

In this paper we empirically investigate the temporal development of a firm’s strategy implementation consistency (SIC), i.e. the alignment between firms’ resource allocation decisions (RAD) and their articulated corporate concept (Noda and Bower, 1996; Burgelman and Grove, 1996; Love et al., 2002; Mintzberg, 1978). Doing so, we test whether (1) SIC is more likely to increase or decline over time, (2) whether firms competing in (low) high-velocity environments in fact show different temporal patterns in SIC, and (3) whether overperforming firms succeed in conserving their level of SIC. For our analysis we draw on 6238 RAD of 20 publicly listed firms with European origin over a period of 4–6 years. Applying maximum likelihood ordered logit estimation, our results indicate that the likelihood of an alignment of RAD and a firm’s corporate concept decreases over time. In line with scholars’ perception of high-velocity environments, we find that the firms in our sample competing under such conditions show no clear trend in SIC. These firms tend to “zig-zag” over time – swaying off and pulling back to their strategic course independent of the timing of the announcement of a corporate concept. We also find that overperforming firms are unsuccessful in preserving their SIC at the same level over time. Based on the empirical findings the paper discusses implications for theory and derives suggestions for corporate level managers on how to balance SIC and strategic flexibility.     

苻坚政治决策中的胡汉文化冲突

五胡十六国时期北方的战乱造成了胡汉两种文化频繁的的冲突，交融。在此过程中胡族统治者或多或少都接受并向往汉文化，但同时又无法摆脱自身的胡文化，其中汉化程度较高的氐族苻坚就是例子，其一方面重开太学，推行德政，任用儒士，另一方面又遗留了善待来降少数民族并保留其自治权的胡族文化，胡汉两种文化的冲突最终导致了苻坚发动淝水之战，以及战后国家的分裂。     

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on First Nations Child Welfare: Why if Canada wins, equality and justice lose

Repeated reports indicate that First Nations children on reserve receive less child welfare funding than other children in Canada despite the fact that First Nations children have higher child welfare needs. After the Government of Canada failed to implement two joint solutions to address the inequality, First Nations organizations in Canada filed a human rights complaint alleging that the Government of Canada is discriminating against First Nations children on the basis of race and national ethnic origin. This historic case is now before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and marks the first time that Canada has been held to account before a legal body for its current treatment of First Nations children and their families. This opinion article presents the facts leading up to the filing of the human rights case, the grass roots advocacy and legal processes after the complaint was filed, and the implications for: First Nations children, individuals from minority groups, and the moral fabric of the country if the Government of Canada wins the case.     

基于三方期权博弈的动漫企业合并决策分析

在三方期权博弈模型的结构下,分析了动漫产业竞争条件下的企业合并决策,得出市场均衡条件下企业的利润函数。进一步构建了实物期权模型,分析企业在动态环境下合并的时机和合并的可能性。结论表明,中资企业的合并决策为外资企业提供了搭便车的机会,并且企业的竞争优势越大,产品的差异化程度越小,则合并后外资企业会获得越大的相对收益。并且,企业的竞争优势越弱,中外产品的差异化程度越高,则合并的时机会越早。企业的外部环境较好会促使企业合并的产生。所得出的结论为我国的动漫产业在通过合并去扩大规模的过程中如何避免外资企业出现搭便车的行为提供了有益的参考。     

Decision making in the newsvendor problem: A cross-national laboratory study

In this paper, we conduct a laboratory experiment using the classic newsvendor problem to examine cross-national differences in inventory ordering patterns between Chinese and American decision makers based on a theoretical examination of the role of the Doctrine of the Mean in Chinese decision making. Drawing on the theory of context-dependent preferences (specifically extremeness aversion), we also revisit the flat-maximum hypothesis of Bolton and Katok [12], i.e., “thinning the set of order options leads to newsvendor decisions that achieve a higher proportion of maximum expected profit.” The results show that the “pull-to-center” effect is more prominent for Chinese than Americans, i.e., average order quantities of Chinese subjects are closer to the anchor of mean demand than those of American subjects. Furthermore, we find that thinning the set of order options such that the optimal order quantity is a middle option, not an extreme option in the choice set, leads to better performance in newsvendor decisions, which complements the flat-maximum hypothesis.     

Measuring sport performances under pressure by classification trees with application to basketball shooting

Measuring players'' performance in team sports is fundamental since managers need to evaluate players with respect to the ability to score during crucial moments of the game. Using Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and play-by-play basketball data, we estimate the probabilities to score the shot with respect to a selection of game covariates related to game pressure. We use scoring probabilities to develop a player-specific shooting performance index that takes into account for the difficulty associated to score different types of shots. By applying this procedure to a large sample of 2016–2017 Basketball Champions League (BCL) and 2017–2018 National Basketball Association (NBA) games, we compare the factors affecting shooting performance in Europe and in the United States and we evaluate a selection of players in terms of the proposed shooting performance index with the final aim of providing useful guidelines for the team strategy.     

Feeling at Risk Matters: Water Managers and the Decision to Use Forecasts

Experts contend that weather and climate forecasts could have an important role in risk management strategies for community water systems. Yet, most water managers make minimal use of these forecasts. This research explores the determinants of the use of weather and climate forecasts by surveying managers of community water systems in two eastern American states (South Carolina and the Susquehanna River Basin of Pennsylvania). Assessments of the reliability of weather and climate forecasts are not driving their use as water managers who find forecasts reliable are no more likely to use them than are managers who find them unreliable. Although larger systems and those depending on surface water are more likely to use forecasts for some (but not all) purposes, the strongest determinant of forecast use is risk perceptions. Water managers who expect to face problems from weather events in the next decade are much more likely to use forecasts than are water managers who expect few problems. Their expectations of future problems are closely linked with past experience: water managers who have had problems with specific types of weather events (e.g., flood emergencies) in the last 5 years are likely to expect to experience problems in the next decade. Feeling at risk, regardless of the specific source of that weather-related risk, stimulates a decision to use weather and climate forecasts.     

Social Care in Old Age: More Than a Funding Problem

There is currently a debate about the future funding of long-term care for old people. Welcome as it is, there is a risk that the focus on finance will obscure equally important questions about who should provide the care and what models of care should be chosen. Many years of research and innovation in the care of the elderly have shown that the effective and efficient provision of simple care services is very difficult to achieve. Social care is at once everyday and peculiarly complex. Some essential characteristics of social care are described which make it unlikely that a solution to the funding problem will improve either the allocation or the outcomes of long-term care.     

高风险、高成本背景下棉农种植决策分析

依据对新疆自治区及新疆生产建设兵团341户棉农调查,通过分别构建Logit二元选择模型,分析在高市场风险、高生产成本等复杂背景下,棉农种植决策差异。研究结果表明,户主年龄、种植面积、亩均成本、棉花单产、种植经验、对成本预期6项指标对兵团及自治区棉农种植决策均有着显著影响。不同的是棉花收入占家庭总收入比重仅在自治区模型中通过显著性检验,而是否机采也仅在兵团模型中通过了显著性检验。文章基于此实证结果并结合相关理论分析,提出促进棉农积极植棉,增收的相关建议。