Entrenchment in publicly traded family firms: Evidence from the S&P 500

Family involvement in corporate governance through ownership, management, and board membership presents a unique dilemma for understanding the strategic impetus and costs of entrenchment decisions. The presence of shared family ties and the family-centered goals of firm principals call to question the applicability of extant agency arguments regarding the nature and antecedents of managerial entrenchment. Exploring this, we develop and test a model of family firm-specific determinants (i.e., family ownership and family's involvement in management and governance) of entrenchment in publicly traded firms by drawing upon principal-principal agency theory. Findings of the empirical analysis of family owned S&P 500 firms suggest family firms are motivated to entrench managers when doing so supports the pursuit of family-centric goals. However, the extent to which entrenchment supports such goals varies at different levels of family ownership.     

Neo-Gramscian Theory and Third World Violence: A Time for Broadening

Abstract

This article argues that the neo-Gramscian theory of hegemony is not as useful in explaining the rise and consolidation of the modern world system. In particular, while the force-consensus approach may indeed be relevant in examining relations among the Western countries, it is fundamentally wanting when applied to the third world. The two main reasons concern the persistent violence against the third world, and the dominance of race and racism as social forces in the production and maintenance of successive world orders. Neo-Gramscian theory needs to be broadened perhaps by paying attention to the relevant thinking in postcolonialism.     

The unique effects of environmental strategies in health promotion campaigns: a review

Various strategies are used as tools in health promotion campaigns to increase health-related outcomes among target populations. Evaluations of these campaigns examine effects on changing people's knowledge, attitudes, and/or behaviors. Most evaluations examine the combined impact of multiple strategies. Less is known about the unique effects of particular strategies. To address this gap, we used highly systematic methods to identify and review scientifically rigorous evaluations of 18 campaigns that examined the unique effects of three sets of intervention strategies (entertainment education, law enforcement, and mass media) on changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practice with regard to various health behaviors. Results showed differences in evaluation processes based on the type of strategy used to promote campaign messages. For instance, evaluations of mass-media based campaigns were more likely to examine changes in knowledge, relative to evaluations of campaigns that used law enforcement strategies. In addition, campaign effects varied by particular strategies. Mass media-based campaigns were more likely to affect knowledge, relative to behaviors. Law enforcement and entertainment education-based campaigns showed positive effects on behaviors. The implications for planning and evaluating health promotion campaigns are described.     

Leading beyond the bottom line, Part 4. The questions it has raised

The Leading Beyond the Bottom Line article series has received an overwhelming response from ACPE members, mostly in enthusiastic support of this new leadership concept. Some of the important questions raised by members are presented with answers from the authors. This article also explores the moral challenge of leadership and why health care is more than a business. In recent years, there's been confusion about the role of the health care enterprise, its leadership and its management. We have lost our way about the "moral" thing, the "right" thing, because we have no philosophy to guide us. To manage or lead in this "business" of health care, a philosophy is required that recognizes the multiple elements to which the leader has responsibility and obligations: the customers, community, employees, and, certainly, the financial assets.     

Relationships Between Parenting Styles and the Academic Performance of Adolescents

Relationships between parenting styles, academic performance, and the mediating effects of motivation, goal orientation, and self-efficacy were examined. One hundred forty-eight high school students participated, including 58 males and 90 females. The Parenting Style/Parental Involvement Questionnaire was used to measure students' perceptions of their parents' parenting styles. The Intrinsic-Extrinsic Orientation Scale measured students' motivation. The Patterns of Adapted Learning Survey measured participants' goal orientation and academic self-efficacy. Adolescents who reported their parents as having a more authoritative parenting style were found to demonstrate more intrinsic motivation in their academic pursuits. Future implications for intervention and research are discussed.     

Competitive lobbying for a legislator’s vote: A comment

 This comment deals with some imperfections of the analysis presented by Austen-Smith and Wright [1]. It is argued that in [1] being informed is incorrectly identified with being informative, yielding an incomplete equilibrium analysis, and leading to bias in the kind of equilibrium behavior predicted. After correcting for this bias, the results obtained corroborate their main conclusion – legislators are often lobbied by just one of two competing groups, typically the a priori disadvantaged group. The comment also strengthens their case for counteractive lobbying; the a priori favored group typically only lobbies to counteract the influence of an opposing group. Another conclusion, however, is qualified; an increase in the groups’ stakes can make it less, rather than more, likely that the legislator makes the correct decision. Received: 26 January 1996/Accepted: 27 March 1996     

Editorial

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior -     

Problems in Terminology,Concept Formation,and Theory Construction

Abstract

Satisfactory verbal theory in sociology is dependent on appropriate concept formation, which in turn must be based on precise terminology and word usage. Futhermore, such terminology should enable the theorist to communicate unambiguously with others knowledgeable in the discipline, a goal to which contemporary sociological theorists have not yet arrived. An understanding of the relationship of logic, meaning, and truth must underlay successful efforts to overcome deficiencies in theory construction. The logical positivists have pointed the way to the development of scientific theory as the basis of empirical social science.