The State of the Field in UK Management Research: Reflections of the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) Panel

This paper reviews the state of the field of the sub-disciplines within UK management research, based upon the submissions of 94 UK higher education institutions to the Business and Management Studies Panel in the UK's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It offers observations on the UK model of the assessment of quality in, and funding of, research conducted in publicly funded higher education institutions.     

Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to Understand Motivation to Register Births in Lombok,Indonesia

Despite government interest in promoting birth registration, more than a third of Indonesian children do not have a birth certificate, affecting the realisation of both their human and citizen rights. While barriers to registering children's births in Indonesia have been assessed, there is limited research on how communities perceive the importance of having a birth certificate. This study used focus group discussions to explore parental motivations around birth registration. The results of a thematic analysis found that perceived use of birth certificates, perceived control over the application process and social norms related to certificate ownership affect the intention to apply.     

The Impact of Adolescents' Classroom and Neighborhood Ethnic Diversity on Same‐ and Cross‐Ethnic Friendships Within Classrooms

This study examines how classroom and neighborhood ethnic diversity affect adolescents' tendency to form same‐ versus cross‐ethnic friendships when they enter middle school. Hypotheses are derived from exposure, conflict, and constrict theory. Hypotheses are tested among 911 middle school students (43 classrooms, nine schools) in the Netherlands. Multilevel (p₂) social network analyses show that students were more likely to engage in same‐ethnic rather than cross‐ethnic friendships. In line with conflict theory, greater classroom and neighborhood diversity were related to stronger tendencies to choose same‐ethnic rather than cross‐ethnic friends, among both ethnic majority and minority students. Diversity did not hamper reciprocity, as students in more ethnically diverse classrooms were even more likely to reciprocate friendships.     

On marriage and migration

Marriage, migration and related phenomena such as marital stability, fertility and investment in human capital may be better explained by studying marriage and migrationjointly. We thus proceed in this paper to explore the role of migration in obtaining joint labour-market and marriage-market equilibrium. This facilitates identification of several novel and testable hypotheses.     

Are Poor Neighborhoods Resource Deprived? A Case Study of Childcare Centers in New York*

Objective. Many social scientists believe poor mothers are better off in middle‐class than in poor neighborhoods, partly because the latter are deprived of important institutional resources. We test whether poor neighborhoods are more likely to lack one critical institutional resource, the childcare center. Methods. We use geocoded data on all licensed centers in the City of New York, address matched to Census tracts. We estimate logit models of presence of center in tract, testing for the linear and nonlinear effects of tract poverty level after controlling for residential instability, joblessness, ethnic makeup, and other demographic factors. We complement the analysis with documentary, interview, and ethnographic data on centers in one poor and one nonpoor neighborhood in the city. Results. We find (1) that the probability of presence of a childcare center does not decrease as poverty level increases; (2) the relationship depends strongly on funding source, with privately funded centers being less likely and publicly funded ones more likely to be present in poor neighborhoods; and (3) at least two factors affect why poor neighborhoods are more likely to have certain centers, the local state and the (often neglected) nonprofit infrastructure. Conclusions. The findings suggest that poor mothers are not necessarily better off in middle‐class neighborhoods in this respect. The market assumptions underlying the initial hypothesis should be modified. More empirical research on the effect of the nonprofit sector on the prevalence of neighborhood institutions is needed.     

DEREGULATION AND THE RELIGIOUS MARKET IN TAIWAN: A Research Note

The religious economy model predicts that when encountered with competition, loosely organized religions will fail or will be transformed into congregational religions. Over time, competition will drive congregational religions to establish an extended relationship with their consumers by generating exclusivist claims and exclusivist socialization. And thus exclusive religion tends to occupy the biggest market share. This model, however, has rarely been tested empirically. By analyzing religious trends in Taiwan after the deregulation of the late 1980s, we find that state suppression contributed to the weakness of organized religion while enhancing the popularity of unchurched congregational religions in Taiwan. We also find that deregulation is associated with the rise of organized and congregational faiths. But whether or not these newly organized religions become exclusive or not needs further studies. Implications of the findings for future research are offered.     

Who is bullying whom in ethnically diverse primary schools? Exploring links between bullying,ethnicity, and ethnic diversity in Dutch primary schools

This study investigated associations between ethnicity, ethnic diversity, and bullying among 739 pupils enrolled in their last year of primary school. Hypotheses derived from social misfit and inter-ethnic relations theories were tested using the multilevel p₂ model. Our key findings were: (1) inter- and intra-ethnic bullying are just as common in ethnically heterogeneous as in homogeneous classes; (2) pupils belonging to the Turkish and Moroccan minority groups bully significantly more than native Dutch (in particular according to victims); the chance to be victimized does not depend on the ethnic background of the pupil; (3) the prevalence of inter- and intra-ethnic bullying depends on the level of ethnic diversity in the class; inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic bullying increase with increasing levels of ethnic diversity.     

A New Look at the African Slave Trade in Puerto Rico Through the Use of Parish Registers: 1660–1815

Our knowledge of the volume of slave traffic as well as the geographic origin and ethnicity of slaves introduced into peripheral areas of the Americas, such as the former Spanish colony of Puerto Rico, is limited. Information contained in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century parish baptismal, marriage, and death registers enables us to locate and identify Africans in a number of island communities, including San Juan. Drawing upon data culled from parish registers this study seeks to broaden our understanding of the slave trade to Puerto Rico in the years 1672 to 1810. Few slaves were brought in either from Africa or from elsewhere in the Americas to Puerto Rico, and the supply of these was erratic and limited. Although they were small in number, there was considerable diversity in the geographic origins and ethnicity of African arrivals, with individuals from West and West Central Africa predominating. For the most part, these shared a relatively homogenous culture and a greater similarity insofar as the language(s) they spoke. Such commonalities facilitated integration and promoted social cohesion among the newly arrived Africans as well as those already present in the host population. It also facilitated their integration into what was emerging as a unified Afro-Puerto Rican slave community.     

Creating Disability in the Home: the role of environmental barriers in the United States

One thousand persons with disabilities were sampled to discover the types of barriers they encountered in their home while carrying out their daily activities. A 43 percent response rate was obtained. The open-ended questions were submitted to a process of analytic coding and suggested 27 different categories of barriers existed in the homes of persons who have disabilities. The findings have implications for rehabilitation practice. Performance of daily activities is greatly diminished by the presence of architectural barriers. Environmental supports can greatly improve performance in daily tasks. These findings are discussed in light of disability policy and implications for improving performance of persons who have disability.