供应商网络结构对农机制造企业绩效的影响

制造企业对于供应商资源的利用受其供应商网络结构的影响。近年来,研究者已针对供应商网络结构展开了分析,但还缺乏针对农业机械制造企业供应商网络结构进行深刻刻画的研究。通过调查分析发现,农业机械制造企业主导的供应商网络结构在农业机械制造企业层次、供应商网络中企业间关系层次、整体供应商网络层次方面存在差异,对农业机械制造企业绩效也有不同影响。研究结果表明,中间中心性、接近中心性、关系密度、关系强度正向影响农业机械制造企业的制造绩效,内部差异性负向影响制造绩效;中间中心性、接近中心性、关系密度对创新绩效影响不显著,关系强度负向影响创新绩效,内部差异性正向影响创新绩效。研究成果对于我国农业机械制造企业的采购与供应管理有一定的实践参考价值。     

连锁董事网络对企业并购影响的实证研究

基于社会网络理论和资源依赖理论,分析了连锁董事关系网络对企业并购行为和并购绩效的影响。研究发现,不同连锁董事网络的结构特性对企业的并购行为有不同的影响,即位于连锁董事网络不同位置的企业,其并购行为存在着差异。在连锁董事网络中占据中心位置为企业带来了潜在的竞争优势,从而增加了企业并购的可能性。同时,处于连锁董事网络中心位置的企业,并购绩效较低。研究表明,在中国这样的转型经济中,企业与其它企业建立连锁董事关系,对企业并购决策有一定的影响,但是对企业并购绩效改善不足。     

腐败裂变式扩散:一种社会交换分析

腐败与反腐败是一个不断博弈的矛盾过程,腐败的形态在反腐败中不断演变。随着腐败产生的制度环境发生变化,当前中国腐败现象的蔓延形态呈现出“裂变式扩散”,即腐败从个体向群体甚至向整个组织扩散,从低层级按管理逻辑向高层扩散。对中国腐败裂变式扩散现象进行社会交换分析,发现其存在两种动力机制：一是内驱机制,即腐败行动者为了更安全地实现利益扩张而建构腐败关系网络;二是外驱机制,即腐败行动者受到圈子内规范约束而维护腐败关系网络。腐败关系网络的生产和再生产导致了腐败裂变式扩散。但腐败的裂变式扩散是一个通过策略实施耦合上述两种动力机制的复杂过程。腐败行动者通过风险评估和试探交换策略来寻找腐败交换对象,通过拟亲化和服务渗透策略使自身进入“自家人”圈子,通过共赢共溃策略来增强腐败群体的利益共同体意识。腐败交换秩序是上述策略实施的综合结果,这种微观社会秩序生产着支持自身运作的规范与逻辑。     

People and Technologies as Resources in Times of Uncertainty

Abstract

This paper is concerned with people’s decision‐making and communication practices when moving around the world in uncertain situations. It examines how people acted when flights were grounded in Europe for one week in April 2010 as a result of the ash cloud from a volcano in Iceland. The paper focuses on the communication practices of a group of people travelling from Norway to Britain in a hired coach. Drawing on the approaches of literacy studies along with broader work on new technologies, it covers a range of issues including: how people integrate languages and technologies as global resources for local decision making; how they deploy networks of support in different ways; and how they evaluate knowledge in a rapidly changing situation of rumour and counter‐claim. The paper enriches understanding of people using technologies and acting within complex networks. It emphasises the need for literacy studies, and sociolinguistics more generally, to develop richer notions of networked interaction and mediated language use in a mobile world. And it highlights for mobilities research the importance of language issues in a multilingual world.     

Leadership in Context: The Four Faces of Capitalism

The literature on the human resource development (HRD) needs of very small (micro) firms and sole entrepreneurs is limited and what does exist tends to be polarized between the needs of the policy favoured by technological entrepreneurs or of extrapolated large-firm organizational practices. The research we conducted made observations of how a group of rural-based entrepreneurs in north-east England, handled HRD issues. A key finding was that this group made extensive use of their spatially fixed egocentric networks to further their business activities. Consequently, we argue that the development of HRD models for such firms must acknowledge the importance of such structures, something that they currently fail to do.     

Bullying and victimization among majority and minority students: The role of peers’ ethnic perceptions

In this study, we investigate the associations between self-reported and victim-reported bullying and two dimensions of ethnicity (self-identification and ethnic perceptions) among non-Roma majority and Roma minority Hungarian secondary school students. Results of the meta-analysis of exponential random graph models for 12 classes (347 students, 4 schools) show that both self-declared Roma and non-Roma students are more likely to report that they bully peers they perceive as Roma compared to peers they perceive as non-Roma. This is after controlling for gender, socio-economic status, and structural characteristics of the bullying networks. Similar associations have not been found, however, analysing victims’ reports.     

Embedded performers: The relational foundations of record production

This article discusses some network mechanisms that may facilitate involvement in artistic production. More specifically, it explores the nature of the collaborative networks in which musicians are embedded, and looks for the structural configurations that are most conducive to individual creativity. Drawing upon a dataset consisting of 253 music teachers in the Italian region of Trentino, and focusing in particular on record production, the article shows productivity and artistic vitality to be highest among musicians with a balanced combination of ties to other musicians in the local music schools system, and ties to musicians with different territorial locations. These findings contribute to established lines of research on the network determinants of individual productivity and creativity in various domains.     

Participatory evaluation of a community–academic partnership to inform capacity-building and sustainability

The Tampa Bay Community Cancer Network (TBCCN) was formed as a partnership comprised of committed community based organizations (grassroots, service, health care organizations) and a National Cancer Institute designated cancer center working together to reduce cancer health disparities. Adhering to principles of community-based participatory research, TBCCN's primary aims are to develop and sustain outreach, training, and research programs that aim to reach medically underserved, multicultural and multilingual populations within the Tampa Bay tri-county area.Using a participatory evaluation approach, we recently evaluated the partnerships’ priorities for cancer education and outreach; perspectives on the partnerships’ adherence to CBPR principles; and suggestions for sustaining TBCCN and its efforts. The purpose of this paper is to describe implementation and outcomes of this participatory evaluation of a community/academic partnership, and to illustrate the application of evaluation findings for partnership capacity-building and sustainability. Our evaluation provides evidence for partners’ perceived benefits and realized expectations of the partnership and illustrates the value of ongoing and continued partnership assessment to directly inform program activities and build community capacity and sustainability.     

Does religion foster generosity?

This paper reviews recent studies that claim to provide support, through statistical analysis of survey data, for the traditional proposition that being religious makes people more generous. The studies have serious shortcomings. First, the data consist exclusively of self-reports. Second, the dependent and independent variables are conceptually problematic and ill-defined. Third, even if there is a positive correlation between religious involvement and personal generosity, it may be due to selection bias. Thus, these studies do not provide serious evidence for the traditional hypothesis. Moreover, it has been directly controverted by experimental studies of economic and other behaviors.     

The role of network setting and gender in online content popularity

In this study, we explore the role of specific network structures that enhance social capital and assess the extent to which gender, social ties, and communication interaction relate to content popularity within online social networks (OSNs). Our results are based on an extensive OSN data set, containing over 100,000 members, connected by over 1.7 million links. The findings indicate that content popularity inference is more accurate when considering activity interaction among users and that network structures known as advantageous for amassing social capital in the offline environment are relevant online as well. We conclude by discussing how gender mediates the correlation between some network measures and the growth of users’ content popularity and provide a potential explanation for the emergence of gender differences.