Revisiting the outsourcing debate: two sides of the same story

Although outsourcing of organisational functions has become a popular practice amongst organisations, the literature provides a myopic and simplistic view of the phenomenon by focusing on either single functions or taking monadic views of a single party. The design of our study overcomes these weaknesses by including the following features: a range of organisational functions were included; the unit of analysis was the outsourcing contract; the level of analysis was at the dyadic level where both service providers and receivers presented their views and the approach was a qualitative one. In practice, this involved interviews with managers in service receiving and providing organisations that were in charge of 10 separate outsourcing arrangements. Using agency theory as a theoretical anchor, we contribute to the outsourcing debate by highlighting its complexity and areas of convergence and divergence between service receivers and providers, thereby suggesting a contingent approach towards implementation of outsourcing arrangements.     

Minimum local distance density estimation

We present a local density estimator based on first-order statistics. To estimate the density at a point, x, the original sample is divided into subsets and the average minimum sample distance to x over all such subsets is used to define the density estimate at x. The tuning parameter is thus the number of subsets instead of the typical bandwidth of kernel or histogram-based density estimators. The proposed method is similar to nearest-neighbor density estimators but it provides smoother estimates. We derive the asymptotic distribution of this minimum sample distance statistic to study globally optimal values for the number and size of the subsets. Simulations are used to illustrate and compare the convergence properties of the estimator. The results show that the method provides good estimates of a wide variety of densities without changes of the tuning parameter, and that it offers competitive convergence performance.     

An exploration of the offset hypothesis using disaggregate data: The case of airbags and antilock brakes

The offset hypothesis predicts consumers adapt to innovations that improve safety by becoming less vigilant about safety. Previous tests have used aggregate data that may confound the effect of a safety policy with those consumers who are most affected by it. We test the hypothesis using disaggregate data to analyze the effects of airbags and antilock brakes on automobile safety. We find that safety-conscious drivers are more likely than other drivers to acquire airbags and antilock brakes but these safety devices do not have a significant effect on collisions or injuries, suggesting drivers trade off enhanced safety for speedier trips. JEL Classification L5 · R4     

Making Amends: Children's Expectations about and Responses to Apologies

Two studies investigate children's expectations and actual responses to a transgressor's attempt to make amends. In Study 1, six‐ and seven‐year‐olds (N = 16) participated in a building activity and then imagined how they would respond if a transgressor knocked over their tower and then apologized spontaneously, apologized after prompting, offered restitution, or did nothing. Children forecasted that they would feel better and would share more when a transgressor offered restitution or apologized spontaneously than when the transgressor had to be prompted to apologize or did not apologize at all. In Study 2, six‐ and seven‐year‐olds (N = 64) participated in the same building activity, but then actually had their towers knocked over and received one of the four responses. The only response that actually made children feel better was when the transgressor offered restitution. However, children shared more with a transgressor who offered restitution, a spontaneous apology, or a prompted apology than with one who failed to offer any apology. Restitution can both mitigate hurt feelings and repair relationships in children; apologies serve mainly to repair relationships.     

Watch and Learn? Infants Privilege Efficiency Over Pedagogy During Imitative Learning

This experiment tested how 18‐month‐old infants’ prior experience with an object affects their imitation. Specifically, we asked whether infants would imitate an adult who used her head to illuminate a light‐box if they had earlier discovered that the light could be illuminated with their hands. In the Self‐Discovery condition, infants had the opportunity to freely explore the light‐box; all infants used their hands to activate the light‐box at least once during this period. The experimenter then entered the room and, while providing explicit pedagogical cues, demonstrated illuminating the light‐box using her forehead. In the Demonstration Only condition, infants just viewed the experimenter’s demonstration. During a subsequent testing phase, infants in the Demonstration Only condition were more likely to use their foreheads to activate the light‐box. Conversely, infants in the Self‐Discovery condition were more likely to use their hands, suggesting that efficiency can “trump” pedagogy in some observational learning contexts.     

The Effect of Vocabulary Size on Toddlers' Receptiveness to Unexpected Testimony About Category Membership

Children must be willing to accept some of what they hear “on faith,” even when that testimony conflicts with their own expectations. The study reported here investigated the relation among vocabulary size, object recognition, and 24‐month‐olds' (N = 40) willingness to accept potentially surprising testimony about the category to which an object belongs. Results showed that children with larger vocabularies were better able to recognize atypical exemplars of familiar categories than children with smaller vocabularies. However, they were also most likely to accept unexpected testimony that an object that looked like a member of one familiar category was actually a member of another. These results indicate that 24‐month‐olds trust classifications provided by adult labeling patterns even when they conflict with the classifications children generate on their own.