The news value of nonprofit organizations and issues

This article reports on a study of the newsworthiness of information about nonprofit organizations and issues. The two-part study included content analysis of news stories in the 1991 editions of the San Francisco Chronicle and interview with editors and reporters at the paper.     

Mission Impossible? Defining Nongovernmental Organizations

This paper provides a synopsis of current interpretations of the term nongovernmental organization (NGO). Although NGOs have become recognized actors in international affairs, particularly over the last decade, it has not yet been clearly defined what the term NGO encompasses. It is argued that two major tracks of NGO interpretations can be distinguished: the juridical approach, and the sociological perspective. In juridical studies, the emphasis is placed on the legal status of NGOs in the national context and their implications for international law. Sociological works, instead, are based on studies of societal actors, and try to capture the term while examining more specifically the composition and functions of NGOs in the transnational arena. Acknowledging both tracks, the paper concludes with a comprehensive definition of the term NGO.     

Differences between actual and perceived student norms: an examination of alcohol use, drug use, and sexual behavior

Researchers in the social norms area have previously focused primarily on alcohol consumption, paying comparatively less attention to drug use and sexual behavior. The major purposes of this study were to (1) compare perceptions of peer norms in the areas of alcohol use, drug use, and sexual behavior with actual behavior and (2) determine if a relationship existed between a student's perceptions of normative behavior and a student's actual behavior. Participants were 833 college students at a large, public university in the Northeast. Study participants overestimated alcohol use, drug use, and sexual behavior among their peers. There was also a positive relationship between actual behavior and perceived peer norms, although the effect sizes for all behaviors were small to moderate. The authors provide further support for the tenets of social norms theory and suggest that social norms interventions are appropriate both campus-wide and to targeted high-risk groups.     

Moderators of the Relationship Between Physical Activity and Alcohol Consumption in College Students

Abstract

Objective: Among college students, several studies have found a positive relationship between physical activity and alcohol use. The current study tested gender, Greek status, and ethnicity as potential moderators of the physical activity-alcohol use relationship. Participants: Participants were college freshmen (n = 310) endorsing alcohol/drug use. Methods: Students completed questionnaires assessing a number of health behaviors. Results: Results indicated that gender and Greek status were significant moderators of the relationship between physical activity and alcohol consumption. There was a positive relationship between physical activity and alcohol use for men and Greeks, but not for females and non-Greeks. Conclusions: These findings suggest that exercise does not serve as a protective factor for any of the subgroups of college students studied and is positively associated with drinking among college students who are men and/or involved with the Greek system.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Thomas Drepper:</Emphasis> Organisationen der Gesellschaft. Gesellschaft und Organisation in der Systemtheorie Niklas Luhmanns

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Predicting the Daily Covariance Matrix for S&P 100 Stocks Using Intraday Data—But Which Frequency to Use?

This article investigates the merits of high-frequency intraday data when forming mean-variance efficient stock portfolios with daily rebalancing from the individual constituents of the S&P 100 index. We focus on the issue of determining the optimal sampling frequency as judged by the performance of these portfolios. The optimal sampling frequency ranges between 30 and 65 minutes, considerably lower than the popular five-minute frequency, which typically is motivated by the aim of striking a balance between the variance and bias in covariance matrix estimates due to market microstructure effects such as non-synchronous trading and bid-ask bounce. Bias-correction procedures, based on combining low-frequency and high-frequency covariance matrix estimates and on the addition of leads and lags do not substantially affect the optimal sampling frequency or the portfolio performance. Our findings are also robust to the presence of transaction costs and to the portfolio rebalancing frequency.     

Sticking it all together: A critical assessment of the group cohesion–performance literature

Although group cohesion is a widely studied construct in the group dynamics literature, there is a considerable lack of consistency and agreement regarding the construct. This paper reviews the current state of the cohesiveness literature. Cohesion is now generally defined as the group members' inclinations to forge social bonds, resulting in the group sticking together and remaining united. Unfortunately, the large number of definitions and measures used by researchers has created a literature that is inconsistent and confusing. This review focuses on the considerable research on the cohesion–performance relationship. The general consensus of this research is that there is a generally positive association between cohesion and performance, but the theoretical and operational mechanisms creating this association are unclear. This lack of clarity may be due to the wide range of measures and assessments of cohesion and the cohesion–performance association. Two underlying contentious issues within this aspect of the literature are whether cohesion is unidimensional or multidimensional and the appropriate level of analysis required for measuring the construct. The resolution of these inconsistencies requires researchers to take a step back toward grounding the research in broader theoretical frameworks, to determine whether the cohesion–performance association has an underlying common cause, and to use longitudinal studies that use more sophisticated analytical models.